The Vikings soccer teams are in their prime right now.

Both the boys and the girls are using every game as training for a deep postseason run. Both teams have the capability to make state, but to get there they will need to sharpen their skills even more. Playing young developing teams halfway through this kind of a season can be dangerous in that respect, but the Vikings didn’t let large-margin wins serve as an excuse for sloppy play during their most recent homestand.

The girls soccer team beat Dayton 12-0, and the boys won 8-1 on Monday at South Tahoe High School.

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Boys focus on postseason

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The Vikings were leading 5-0 at halftime so the win wasn’t a big concern for boys’ coach Ben Hannah.

“We’re training hard to make a deep playoff run and part of what I did today was to take the starting lineup out and have them watch,” Hannah said. “Part of that educational process was watching the other team and figuring out if they were making mistakes or if they were not making mistakes, what they were doing well and what they were doing poorly. When that was through it was their turn to go out there and execute.”

South Tahoe was executing all night.

The Vikings’ leading scorer Derek Caro gave the Vikings an early 2-0 lead. Caro netted two goals off assists from Jesus Martinez.

Martinez recorded a goal of his own a few minutes later when he drew Dayton’s goalkeeper out and touched the ball in off a pass from Austin Williams 18 minutes in.

Trailing 3-0, Fernley started to pick up its pace. The Dust Devils got inside South Tahoe’s zone and fired off a few shots, but Adrian Mariscal fended off the attack without looking concerned.

Martinez then struck again for the Vikings with 15 minutes remaining. He snuck past Dayton’s defense and blasted a shot past the goalkeep to give South Tahoe a 4-0 edge.

Juan Martinez dribbled in the final goal of the first half.

The Vikings second team retook the field after halftime. Goalkeepers Kyle Hannah and Alvaro Orozco took the field at center back.

“It was nice to be able to play most of the bench, and actually the bench players did outstanding,” Hannah said.

Jaime Rodriguez and Christopher Medina teamed up to net the opening goal in the second half. Medina sent in a pass and Rodriguez followed it into the net.

Dayton then scored its only goal of the game. Oscar Bueno scored off a pass from Ryan Greenwalt to make the score 6-1.

Rodriguez retaliated, netting a goal off a pass from Isaias Montoya.

With the score a 7-1, South Tahoe’s first string reentered the game. The boys spent the remaining 10 minutes working on possession.

David Rodriguez netted one final goal when Caro sent him a perfect pass in the final two minutes of the game.

“I think we’re a good team, but we have a lot of work to do to be a championship team,” Hannah said. “We need to work on speed of play and playing away from pressure. Those are the two things we needed to work on most of the season and we’ve kind of hit a plateau where we need to raise the bar on how we are moving the ball around.

“Some of the other teams are going to take advantage of our mistakes and we need to be much cleaner on the ball.”

Girls keep momentum rolling

The girls picked up right where the boys left off, climbing out to a 7-0 lead by halftime.

Jordyn Dion struck in the first five minutes of the games.

Brittany Hubberts was up next. She popped in a goal off an assist from Dion in the 13th minute.

Cassidy Jackson used fancy footwork to sneak past Dayton two minutes later and send a pass to Hubberts, who netted her second goal of the game for a 3-0 lead.

Dion drew out the goalkeeper for No. 4 off an assist from Beth Jaggard.

Jackson followed up quickly by out-maneuvering Dayton’s defense once again for South Tahoe’s fifth goal.

Grace Schouten pushed South Tahoe to 6-0 with a shot to the right corner that sent Dayton’s goalkeep diving.

Carli Valney and Schouten teamed up for the final goal of the first half. Valney passed to Schouten who booted the ball into the upper right corner of Dayton’s goal.

“You still can develop bad habits and that can happen in games like this so the challenge becomes individually to be disciplined to make a good touch to play a good touch,” girls coach Jeremy Evans said. “Don’t give the ball away and not care, and I think for the most part they didn’t.”

The onslaught continued into the second half.

Sarah Higginbotham dribbled around the defense, found her shot and sent a huge goal sloping into the net from about 25 yards out.

Valney made the score 9-0 when she sunk a pass from Allie King.

Maia Bickert netted the Vikings’ 10th goal off a pass from Teagan Grant with 14 minutes remaining in the game.

Kendall Eagan dribbled the ball up and scored with seven minutes remaining, 11-0.

The final goal went to Jensen Smith, who traded passes with Bickert as the two girls worked the ball down the field together. Smith touched in the Vikings final goal of the night.

UP NEXT: The South Tahoe and Whittell girls will meet at Whittell High School Thursday at 5 p.m.