ROUNDUP: Arbor View routs Palo Verde to claim Northwest regular-season crown
Sometimes it’s better to be lucky and good.
Arbor View’s girls soccer team used a little bit of luck to blitz Palo Verde 4-1 on Wednesday to capture the Northwest League title and a No. 1 seed for the Sunset Region playoffs.
“We’ve made the playoffs for four years in a row, but we’ve been the three seed, so being a division champ is quite the accomplishment,” Aggies coach Jay Howard said. “We’re proud to do that.”
Senior Bianca Norman got the Aggies on the board in the fifth minute, tapping in a pass from Tara LeBaron right in front of the net for the early lead.
“It was great. I haven’t been successful at scoring lately, but it was great to get that first goal in, to set the tone,” said Norman, who also added an assist. “It wasn’t easy, but we tried our hardest.
“We didn’t come out here cocky, just to play as a team and send a message.”
Tori Rodriguez and Tori Dunn added two chip-shot goals in the 11th and 16th minutes, respectively, that sailed high and barely slipped in under the crossbar against a backpeddling Palo Verde goalkeeper Stacie Gubler, who finished with six saves.
“We haven’t always started real well early, so I was really happy to see the way we came out focused and got a good early start and got that quick goal,” Howard said.
Palo Verde had a free kick narrowly bounce off the crossbar in the 30th minute.
Falon Miller added a goal two minutes before the end of the first half for the Aggies, who blanked the Panthers for 40 minutes.
Sophomore Sila Tuiofea notched a goal for Palo Verde 15 minutes into the second half, sneaking in a pass from Kori Jeffries behind diving Arbor View keeper Alex Luevano-Hardin.
“I have a lot of respect for Palo. Any time we’ve beaten them, it’s been huge,” Howard said. “They’re a great program; I think they’ve won two championships, so we understand how big a win it is any time you beat them.”
Luevano-Hardin made four saves for Arbor View.
Cimarron-Memorial 8, Mojave 0 — At Cimarron, Starlyn Thomas had two goals and an assist to help the Spartans rout Mojave.
Cimarron-Memorial 8, Mojave 0 — At Cimarron, Starlyn Thomas had two goals and an assist to help the Spartans rout Mojave.
Gianna Johnson, Chelsea Popp, Brooke D’Onofrio, Taylor Pinier, Ashley Moreno and Megan Blackham also scored for Cimarron, which got two assists apiece from Hailey Kirkwood and Katie Greener.
Amanda Snider made two saves to earn the shutout.
Cheyenne 1, Legacy 1 — At Cheyenne, Megan Galane’s second-half goal allowed Legacy to tie the Desert Shields.
Jennifer Ramirez scored in the first half for Cheyenne.
Spring Valley 3, Clark 0 — At Spring Valley, Markie Henderson scored two goals in the first half and added another in the second half as the Grizzlies blanked Clark.
Mahala Shumway made five saves to earn the shutout.
Desert Oasis 1, Western 1 — At Western, Carmen Ramirez scored five minutes into the match to give the Warriors the lead, but the Diamondbacks’ Samantha Bernal responded with a penalty-kick goal 10 minutes later as the teams played to a draw.
Durango 1, Sierra Vista 0 — At Sierra Vista, Michelle Lorza’s first-half goal stood up as Durango blanked the Mountain Lions.
Emily Casale made four saves to record the shutout for the Trailblazers.
