Pahrump Valley soccer teams struggle early in the season

Pahrump Valley’s soccer teams are struggling early in the fall season — both teams have more losses than wins, so far.

While the girls were able to add a win to their league standings and overall ranking, the boys on Tuesday night had their league standings fall as they lost to Sports Leadership and Management, the top-ranked school in the league.

The boys faced off against the 3A Southern regional champion and state championship finalist this week. During the game the Trojans struggled to keep two of SLAM’s players away from the Trojans’ side.

SLAM beat the Trojans 7-1 after Manny Mendez and Luis Ortiz scored goals. Mendez scored four while Ortiz scored three and three assists. Both of these high-performing players are only juniors and the Trojans will not see the last of them for another year. But Callum Atwell, a forward for the Trojans was able to find a score thanks to the help of Ryan Nunez Manzo, who assisted the goal.

“The strongest side currently has to be our individual talent at the forward and mid positions,” said Trojans coach Andrew Norton. “The problem is this is not an individual sport. We have to marry the superstar ability with team play, or it won’t matter. Team has to come first.”

Last year, the Trojans did not make it to the regional championship due to finishing 2-9-1 in their league standings. Overall the Trojans finished 2-13-1. Since then the team has added new staff, including coach Norton.

“It’s been a steep learning curve,” Norton said. “With a new system, new coaching staff, short practice season before three back-to-back-to-back games followed by just a couple more practice days.”

But he has seen that the team is “coming along.”

As the team has continued to make adjustments they have been able to match their total number of wins from last season to this early fall season. The Pahrump boys soccer team still has nine more league games to play that count toward their NIAA regional league. The Trojans would have to make it to the top four teams in the league in order to make it to the regional playoffs.

Currently, the boys are at the bottom of the leaderboard in seventh place while SLAM and Boulder City sit at the top. Pahrump Valley would have to at least beat Pinecrest Academy Sloan Canyon and Mater Academy East Las Vegas in the standings if they want a chance to fight for the fourth position.

The Trojans have a non-conference game on Friday but win or lose, this game will have no impact on their league standings. Pahrump Valley is having a rematch game against Cristo Rey St. Viator in North Las Vegas at 6 p.m.

This would be an opportunity for the Trojans to score their third win this season as their last game went in favor of Pahrump Valley. TC Hone, Atwell and Hector Hernandez all scored two goals each in that game. So far in the season this was the highest scoring game the Trojans have played.

State champions fight for playoffs

The girls are coming off a big win from last season after they won the NIAA state championship, where they went undefeated last year.

Many of the players that made it to the championships last year have graduated, which left six players on the roster according to MaxPreps. But the team still knows how to win a game as on Tuesday the Trojans were able to pull together and defeat Chaparral 2-1.

Overall, the Trojans are still in the negatives with a 2-3 record and now a 2-1 standing in the league leaderboard. At the top is SLAM and Boulder City and Pahrump Valley is likely to stay in fourth place in the league standings.

The Trojans’ main competitor would be Sunrise Mountain, who is just above the Pahrump team in the league standings.

The girls’ next league game is in Henderson on Monday against the Pinecrest Academy Sloan Canyon Pirates in Henderson, who are 0-3 in the league and overall. The Pirates have also played against SLAM and lost, like the Trojans. The Bulls have played the same team the Trojans did early in the season but by the end of the match it was 11-0 against the Pirates. When SLAM played Pahrump Valley the Trojans lost 8-0.

Contact Jimmy Romo at jromo@pvtimes.com. Follow @JimmyRomo.News on Instagram.