Faith Lutheran girls soccer team faces stiff competition

Faith Lutheran girls soccer coach Bob Chinn didn’t mince words when talking about his team.

“This group has the potential to be the best we’ve ever had,” Chinn said.

Considering the 2019 squad won the school’s first state championship with a 23-0-1 season, that’s high praise.

“Skillwise and chemistrywise, we’re looking good,” Chinn said. “We’ve got a good group of senior leaders out there. They enjoy the program, and they’ve been in the program for a couple of years now and understand how we want to play.”

The Crusaders will be anchored on the back end by senior goalkeeper Jordan Brown, the 2019 Nevada Gatorade Player of the Year.

She allowed only three goals in 2019, also a testament to how strong Faith Lutheran’s back line was in front of her.

“Jordan is a fantastic piece of the pie, but we’ve got a lot of other seniors I anticipate having very good seasons,” Chinn said.

During the shortened spring season, when the Crusaders went 6-0-1, they unveiled another player Chinn calls a “game-changer” in midfielder Andrea Leyva.

“She’s a fantastic player,” Chinn said. “She very even keel on and off the field. She really enjoys the game, enjoys her teammates and doesn’t have a large ego. She has great ability, but she reads the field so well and has such a high soccer IQ.”

The Crusaders’ tie in the spring came against Bishop Gorman, whose coach, Doug Borgel, isn’t quite as bullish on his team.

It’s going to be a young squad of Gaels despite a senior-laden back line that should provide some protection for two freshman goalkeepers.

Borgel’s concern is whether Gorman can score. He said this is the first time he doesn’t have a player who can score 25-30 goals. That’s a problem for someone whose motto is, “We’d rather win 10-9 than 1-0.”

UNLV commit Michelle Madrid is the Gaels’ captain and should be their best overall player, Borgel said.

Gorman won the 2017 and 2018 state championships and always has to be considered a factor. The same can be said for Coronado, the 2019 state runner-up, Palo Verde, Green Valley and Centennial, which played Faith Lutheran to a scoreless draw in the 2019 regular season and reached the state semifinals.

Centennial has a strong centerpiece in senior Skye Kennedy, who was second on the team with 15 goals in 2019.

“She was a sophomore the last time I saw her, and she’s quicker, her skills are better,” Centennial coach Tony Clifford said. “We’re also going to have one or two wild cards in there.”

With most of the teams having sat out the 2020-21 school year and a new Class 5A, there are plenty of unknowns. But the coaches think it’s going to make for intense competition.

“That’s the fun part about it,” Chinn said. “It’ll push the players to be better and know they can’t take a night off. (In 2019), you had such a wide variety of teams, there were too many games that weren’t fun for anybody. There’s going to be good soccer played every night in 5A.”

Contact Jason Orts at jorts@reviewjournal.com. Follow @SportsWithOrts on Twitter.