Trojans girls soccer battle to tie against league leader

The Lady Trojans soccer team held their own once again against Spring Valley on Wednesday, fighting the Grizzlies to a 1-1 tie.

The girls played well against the division leaders, but ran out of time.

Trojans coach Sarah Kent was pleased with the girls' performance.

"The girls played really well together," Kent said. "Overall, I was happy with their performance and how they worked together and kept the communication up. Our defensive defended very well against a team that works together to maintain possession and settles balls in the air."

Spring Valley (9-3-2 overall, 8-2-2 Sunset League) scored the first goal within the first three minutes of the game.

The game shifted back and forth throughout the first half as each team tried to win the possession battle.

During the first half, the Trojans' Yesenia Garcia brought the ball several times down the field but couldn't get the ball in scoring position. Gabby Vasquez had received a couple of good passes from Garcia, but always with a Spring Valley player in position to prevent a good shot.

The game remained 1-0 through the first half.

In the second half the Trojans (7-8-1, 4-6-1) were more successful in getting the ball downfield. Sydney Dennis had a couple of unsuccessful shots on goal in the early minutes of the second half.

Then two minutes into the half Garcia centered the ball perfectly and Dennis scored the tying goal.

The key in the second half was that the Trojans passing was better and they were able to get a 3-2 advantage on the Spring Valley defense, which they couldn't get in the first half.

The Trojans beat Spring Valley in their first meeting, 4-3 but then lost to Faith Lutheran 5-0.

The bottom line is these girls can beat anyone in this division if they play like this all the time and the team knows it.

The question was asked of two players, senior Gabby Vasquez and senior Jamie Murphy after the game if the girls could beat Spring Valley, why not Faith Lutheran?

Murphy said it was all in the head with her team when it came to teams like Faith Lutheran.

"Sometimes it's past experiences with teams like Faith Lutheran and it kind of gets to our heads," Murphy said. "They scored first that game so we emotionally let up and played down. In this game we had a last-minute effort and wanted to keep trying to end the season in a good way."

Vasquez agreed with Murphy and said it was a mindset with the team.

"Faith Lutheran has always been our competitor," she said. "We were scared of them, but with Spring Valley it's a whole different mindset. We will be prepared for the last game with Faith Lutheran because we know what they are like now."

The game with Faith Lutheran on Oct. 29 at their field will be the last game between the two as the Crusaders move on to Division I next season.

Trojans Boys soccer (5-10-3, 0-9-2) lost to Spring Valley (7-7-1, 7-4-1) 8-2.

The girls travel to Sierra Vista on Friday for a 3 p.m. game while the boys host the same school at 3 p.m.

Contact sports editor Vern Hee at vhee@pvtimes.com. Follow @vernheepvt on Twitter.