Pirates plow down Mojave, Chaparral

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

A cool and calculated offensive strategy kept the Moapa Valley High School Girls Soccer team driving their opponents’ side of the field for nearly the entire game on Thursday, Oct. 20 on the Pirate field. The strategy forced the Mojave team to play defense the whole 80 minutes of play. The game ended in a shutout with a score of 4-0, Pirates.

After the team had already taken four shots on goal within the first 12 minutes of play, MVHS sophomore Mallory Tobler made a shot from about 15 yards out to put the first point on the board at 13:59 into the game.

A few minutes later, MVHS senior Brooke Sherwood broke away and scored the second goal of the evening.

Later in the period, Tobler had another shot at goal. She broke through a crowd of Mojave defenders to find herself wide open in front of the Rattler keeper. She took a clear shot that sailed into the net for a Pirate lead of 3-0 at 35:28 into the half.

This style of play continued in the second half. The Pirates played a methodical offense with accurate passing back and forth to move the ball down field. The MVHS keeper saw little action at all.

In the second half alone, the Lady Pirates took 19 shots on the goal while the Mojave offense seldom got past their center line.

At 14:05 in the second half, Sherwood broke through again and scored the fourth and last goal of the evening.

Earlier in the week, on Tuesday, Oct. 18, the Moapa team travelled to Las Vegas to take on Chaparral. The Pirates dominated the Cowboys in that match, 10-0.

Tobler led the team with no less than 4 goals in the match. Hannah Fullmer was close behind with 3. Talli Fairchild, Evelyn Ward and Fallon Yardley scored one apiece.
Sherwood and Abbie Hammons each got an assist in the match.

MVHS Head Coach Lisa Cornwall said that her team is looking straight ahead going into this final week of regular season play. Their efforts now are all going to prepare for the playoffs, she said.

“We have a positive outlook and we are excited to get into post season play,” Cornwall said. “We are working hard on things that we need to do. But we know we are going to have to push to the end because at this point everyone wants to go to state.”

The Lady Pirates host their final game of the regular season against Cheyenne on Wednesday, Oct. 26 at 6 pm. The Pirates are 7-1 in league play. Cheyenne is 3-5.