The Montezuma-Cortez soccer team wrapped up its 2016 season with a 0-0 tie at Pagosa Springs last Thursday.
The Panthers (3-8-2, 1-4-1 4A/5A Southwestern League) – who have battled injuries to key players all season – turned to their youngsters in their final contest, and their defense and goalkeeper Stevee Brenner kept Pagosa’s 15 shots from entering the net to end in a stalemate.
“I played a lot of girls that haven’t seen a lot of time this season,” M-CHS head coach Nate Ross said. “A lot of freshman played in that game, and basically I just wanted us to go and have fun for that last game.”
Pagosa’s defense answered in turn, and keeper Diana Scott made eight saves to blank the Panthers.
“We had a lot of shots on goal and a couple off the posts,” said Ross. “But their goalkeeper made quite a few good saves.”
The Panthers hope to tally more wins in the coming seasons, playing against schools that have similar enrollment numbers. Playing in the 4A/5A Southwestern League, M-CHS was taking on schools with enrollment numbers twice, and sometimes nearly three times as high.
But the Panthers were still competitive against the stringent competition.
With a 2014-2016 enrollment of 629, M-CHS beat Grand Junction High School (enrollment: 1,713) 2-0 for their only league win, and later tied the Tigers 1-1 in their second contest – games that Ross pointed to as highlights of the season.
“As far as playing some of our best soccer and showing the best fight and heart in our season, a lot of it was in those two games,” he said. “Another game that stands out was the Fruita game at home when we were defensive-minded.”
“We focused purely on shutting Fruita down,” he continued. “And they’re the top team in our league, and we were frustrating them to the point where they couldn’t trap a ball and they couldn’t connect passes because we were so tight on defense.”
Ross and the Panthers certainly hoped to finish out the season with a win. But considering the circumstances, the head coach was content to get his younger players some run and end with a tie.
“It was one of those games where you wish you could’ve come out with a win, but my younger girls got some time to get in there and play against a 3A team that will be in our league next year.”
Looking forward, Ross is optimistic about the Panthers’ move to Class 3A next season and joining the league with Pagosa. The Pirates (10-4-1, 10-2 3A Region 5), finished with the most wins in the conference, but M-CHS beat them 2-0 in their first meeting before tying last week.
“They’re the top team in the league we’ll be in next year,” said Ross. “And looking at how we played against them for our last game, we were kind of limping through that game and we were still dominating a lot of the play.”
“We were still getting a lot of good looks and shots on goal,” he continued. “So as far as looking to the future, we tied the top team in the league.”