It took a bit of a slow start, but the Lady Panthers took care of business against the pesky Pagosa Springs Lady Pirates, 2-0 at Johnson Field on Tuesday afternoon.
Sophomore Allison Porter netted the two goals and now has a team best 10 tallies on the season for Montezuma-Cortez High School (7-7, 2-7 4A Southwestern League).
We kind of started off slow; we kind of have rollercoasters every once and now. Once we find our team, we get our midis and everybody going, its gets going better, Porter, who was assisted by goalkeeper Danielle Waltman on her first goal, said.
The 3A Lady Pirates caught M-CHS a bit off guard at first and were the aggressors, but Waltman did not give up an inch in the box to keep her team in the game.
Pagosa, theyre a smaller school. I think we expected to kind of just run through them, so we were playing more predictable soccer, M-CHS coach Bobby Sitton said. We got caught up in just a very vertical game, rather than looking for a patient, lateral game. It was costing us in the first half.
To settle the troops, Sitton benched four starters, so they could observe the game and figure out what they were doing wrong, and give them some rest. When they went back in the game, the Lady Panthers were more composed, Sitton said.
M-CHS was able to open up the midfield more, which freed up Porter and Dominque Wilkin from being double teamed.
Porter got really open and found Waltmans play-in kick ahead of the defense, and took it the distance with a shot that went by Pagosa Springs goalie Alyssa Laydon for a 1-0 lead. Thats where the score stood at halftime.
After shots by Tori Laymon and Wilkin didnt cross the goal line at the beginning of the second half, Porter bullied her way through the Lady Pirates defense and then beat goalkeeper Laydon one-on-one for the second and final score of the game. Porter later had another solo shot on goal that bounced off the top of the post.
The second half was a lot better. The girls really came together and stepped it up and played some soccer, Sitton said.
Toward the end, tensions flared, as Wilkin and Sitton received yellow cards for excessive fouls and arguing with an official.
The Lady Panthers will need to keep up the intensity when they host rival Durango today at 5 p.m. with a playoff berth on the line. The Lady Demons come in winners of four straight and they shellacked M-CHS 4-0 at home back on April 12.
If we play that predictable against Durango, were in for a long 80 minutes, Sitton said about his teams play early in the game. Were going to have to fix some of that and hopefully attack that with a entire team defense and make sure were working that ball through our middle, and working up into our strikes and attacking the goal.
If the Lady Panthers lose today, they will need a lot of help to get a playoff spot. The team definitely wants to control its own destiny.
Were really trying to shift where we can beat Durango and get a for sure spot in the playoffs, Porter said. Well be focused for practice to get ready for Thursday.
Reach Bobby Abplanalp at bobbya@cortezjournal.com.