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Girls soccer: Dayton holds off Whittell in regional quarterfinal

Jeremy Evans

RENO – If a high school soccer game was 90 minutes instead of 80 minutes,

the Whittell High girls might be playing for a state tournament berth this

weekend. Unfortunately for the Warriors, 80 minutes was all they got.



Dayton’s Erika Garcia scored two of her team’s four goals in the first half

and led the Dust Devils to a 4-3 win over Whittell in the first round of the



Northern 3A regional tournament on Thursday at the South Valleys Regional

Sports Complex.

Whittell (14-8-1) scored all three of its goals in a 15-minute span in the

second half, but it was unable to find a fourth goal in the game’s closing

minutes. Not that Dayton coach Tim Logan was disappointed.

“I was very nervous, and so were the kids,” Logan said. “I saw that game

turning on us. Whittell is a fabulous team. We are happy to get out of here

with a win. The lake schools are, well, the lake schools. They are always

dominant, but I think the teams in our league are on the rise.”

Dayton (14-5), the No. 2 seed from the Sagebrush League, will play Tahoe

League champion Truckee in a semifinal match on Friday in Fallon. North

Tahoe, the No. 2 seed from the Tahoe League, will face either Incline, the

Tahoe League’s No. 4 seed or Sagebrush League champion Spring Creek in the

other semifinal.

With the top three teams advancing to next week’s Nevada 3A state

tournament, the Warriors felt this might be their year.

“It’s been a great season, a great ride,” said WHS first-year coach Tony

Cormier. “If I had to lose, this would be the way I would want to lose.”

The Dust Devils, who beat the Warriors twice during the regular season, went

up 1-0 in the eighth minute on Garcia’s breakaway goal. Natasha Olivera and

Sara Elissa both added goals of their own before Garcia added another

breakaway goal in the 38th minute to give Dayton a 4-0 halftime lead.

But the Warriors made a tactical move in the second half by putting starting

goalkeeper Hannah Daly on the field. Although Daly is a goalie for the

United States Under-16 women’s national team, her ability as a field player

also is an asset.

With Daly in a defensive-minded role, thus neutralizing Dayton’s fastest

players, it enabled Whittell’s other top players to attack the Dust Devil

goal.

In the 58th minute, senior Megan Alexander sent a ball into the box that was

redirected by Tierney McKool to make it 4-1. Less than 10 minutes later,

Alexander’s cross into the box again found an unmarked McKool, who flicked a

shot past the Dayton goalie.

Then in the 73rd minute, Alexander, in no mood to let her senior year end

with a loss, scored on a long-range shot that was only partially saved

before bouncing into the net. Suddenly, the Warriors were trailing 4-3 and

had all the momentum.

“We started off a little sluggish,” Cormier said. “They surprised us a

couple times in the first half, and in a game like this, you usually pay for

your mistakes. But we owned the second half. We beat them to every ball, so

I am proud of all the girls.”

With Whittell continuing to push the attack, the referee blew the final

whistle and ended any hope of a comeback. But with only two seniors

graduating ” Alexander and Becca Gardner ” Whittell should be back in the

playoffs next season.

“Unfortunately we are losing two seniors, but it’s only two and our team is

not going to change much,” Cormier said. “The two of them will definitely be

missed, but I think Whittell is going to be strong for years to come. I

can’t wait until next fall.”


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