SUNRISE REGION: Coronado breaks drought, heads to title match
Coronado’s girls soccer team needed 236 minutes to score its first goal against Silverado this season.
The Cougars needed only six more minutes to notch their second marker and earn a trip to the Class 4A Southern Nevada Girls Soccer Championship.
Nearly shut out for the third straight time by the Skyhawks, Coronado scored with four minutes left in regulation Tuesday to force overtime and connected for the winner in the second minute of the extra period to stun Silverado, 2-1 in the Sunrise Region title game at Bettye Wilson Park.
The Cougars (15-2-3) will face Sunset champion Arbor View for the Southern Nevada title Thursday at 4 p.m. at Bettye Wilson.
Sophomore Breanna Robinson scored the winning goal, getting just enough on a shot that trickled inside the left post.
“I just fought for the ball,” said Robinson, who was about 10 yards out from the goal when she picked up a pass from Melissa Subu. “We knew this might be our last chance.”
Despite holding a huge territorial edge in play and throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the Skyhawks (15-3-1) in the second half, Coronado found itself trailing 1-0 with time running out.
“It was a little bit frustrating,” Coronado coach Dana Neel said. “We had to just keep taking shots and it’ll eventually go in. I just told them we needed to keep our heads up.”
The Cougars peppered Silverado goalkeeper Samantha Lewis with eight second-half shots on goal before finally getting on the board when Leticia Lopez’s free kick was stopped by Lewis, then deflected off three players before being re-directed into the net by sophomore Kymberly Buset.
Buset was one of six different Cougars with a shot on goal in the second half.
“That’s the good thing about this team,” Neel said. “They all pick each other up.”
Silverado took a 1-0 lead in the final minute of the first half when Rachel Cooklin’s spinning shot from just outside the box short-hopped Coronado goalkeeper Kaitlyn Fahrner and deflected in off Fahrner’s right arm.
Fahrner finished with five saves, including a punch save on a shot that was targeted for just under the crossbar by Cooklin early in the second half.
Lewis also finished with a top performance, making 10 saves.
Each team finished the match without at least one of its top weapons.
Coronado forward Sarah Pate left the match just after the tying goal with leg cramps.
Silverado lost midfielder Taylor Richard early in the first half when she appeared to have her left hand stepped on. The Skyhawks played the final seven minutes of regulation and the overtime without leading scorer Cooklin, who injured her left knee.