By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
The Virgin Valley High School Girls Soccer team used a speedy offense and a solid defense to defeat their Moapa Valley High School rivals, 3-0, on Wednesday, Oct. 12 on the Pirate home field.
It was a grueling game of back and forth for two teams which were fairly evenly matched.
The Pirate team started off strong. Precise passing skills allowed them to keep the ball moving forward into the Bulldog side of the pitch.
At 9:50 into the game, a series of passes between Taytum Yardley, Brooke Sherwood and Abbie Hammons brought Hammons within strike distance. But the ball veered off behind the goal and missed.
Virgin Valley put plenty of pressure on the Pirate side of the field as well. About half way through the first period, a Bulldog corner kick brought the ball right across the front of the goal, but the Pirate defense held strong against the attempt and the score remained 0-0.
The Bulldogs would not be denied that goal, however. About a minute later, their offense punched through. Linita Kioa sent a perfect pass to a wide open Katrina Beltran who shot high, just over the head of Pirate keeper Savanna Burt and into the net. This put the Bulldogs up by one goal at 21:21.
The Pirates got close again about five minutes later. After another series of precise passes, Hannah Fullmer made a break toward the goal. But she was intercepted by a Bulldog defender who kicked the ball away before the shot. The resulting corner kick went nowhere for the Pirates.
The Bulldogs kept up the pressure. Another clear shot on goal by Bulldog Linita Kioa was intercepted by Burt and sent back to midfield.
A few minutes later, a penalty kick by Mersadee Corley went high and wide, missing the goal.
And just before the half, another Kioa to Beltran pass in front of the goal resulted in another high shot. This time it sailed above the crossbar and missed, sending the game into the break with a score of 1-0, Bulldogs.
The back and forth action continued in the second half.
At about 18 minutes into the half, Corley made a huge kick from center field which soared over the Pirate defense and landed in front of Beltran. Beltran outran everyone to the box and powered it into the bottom left corner of the goal to make the score 2-0, Bulldogs.
The Pirates fought hard to the finish but they couldn’t break through the tough Bulldog defenses.
In the last five minutes of the game, VVHS senior Sophie Tobler broke free and took a shot that made it into the net for the third Bulldog goal of the evening. That sealed the loss for the Pirates.
MVHS head coach Lisa Cornwall said that it was a disappointing loss. But it was also a valuable learning experience.
“It was a great eye-opener because it revealed some wonderful things for us to work on,” Cornwall said. “And they are all easy fixes. Experiences like this will only make us better during the playoffs.”
VVHS head coach Natalie Akiyama praised her players for their performance in the match. “The girls have been working really hard,” she said. “We are seeing good results. This team is capable of amazing things.”
