Page 18 - 2020 AIA Fall Soccer Program

Northland Prep (12-0, 4-0)
Chino Valley (11-2, 5-1)
The challenge to beat the Spartans comes in several layers. First, a team has to score on them, and only three of their opponents have this fall. In fact, Northland Prep has outscored its 2020 opponents by a total of 92-4.
Allen Foster has set his sights on Northland Prep, fully expecting to meet the Spartans in the 2A state title game Saturday, Nov. 7.
Blair is also second on the team in steals with 55 and takes the bulk of the Spartans’ corner kicks.
Foster, a junior midfielder, led the Cougars in their 9-1 play-in win over Round Valley with four goals and two assists, while sophomore striker Kaitlyn Roskopf added two goals and two assists of her own. Each have 20 goals and 10 assists total this fall. No slouch alongside them
is junior midfielder Sabrina Lopez, who had two assists in the Nov. 3
win to build a team-leading 17. She is also third on the team with eight goals.
Much of the wealth Blair has spread has gone to other midfielders, like seniors Kiarra Hovis and Ellie Karren. They each have scored 20 goals this season, with Karren getting four more thefts this fall than even Blair.
While Foster would be the first to admit he has a young team, the Cougars’ depth in goal may be the only equal to Northland Prep. Soph- omore Shea Daniels went the distance in their Nov. 3 win over the Elks, but has experienced support in senior Emery Rock and junior Brynn Preston, who have combined for 25 saves in 320 minutes.
Overlooked, at other teams’ peril, has been junior wing Sydney Sventek, who has as many game-winning goals this fall as Blair, with four. Her 16 goals and 40 points are each fourth on the team overall. Senior Delaney Donahoe has added three goals this season as well from the other wing.
Then a team would have to get through the Northland Prep defense, which starts two seniors among the team leaders in minutes played in Jayden Dvorak and Anna Kellar.
After that, however, is where Foster’s youth concerns come into play. Elsea’s goal Oct. 26 at Northland Prep was one of only four for her on the season--and that is fifth-highest on the entire Cougar team, just one behind freshman Danielle Graham’s five scores.
Juniors Astrid Bell and Ellis Troutman combined for 72 steals this season, but the real iron maiden for the Spartans has been junior defender Rylee Reed, leading the team with 670 minutes played this fall. She can also play up to assist on goals, as she did Oct. 26 with a key corner kick in a 6-1 home win over Chino Valley.
If the Cougars are to capture their first victory over Northland Prep in three seasons and their first state title in five seasons, they will need those players to represent at Coronado High School, along with seniors Jessie and Joelle Krogh and Lindsey TenBerge. Support will be needed off the bench from sophomores like midfielder Mariah Morgan and freshmen like Daneetra Betancourt, who, along with Jessie Krogh, punched in a goal of her own Nov. 3.
The disproportionately easy victories Northland Prep has enjoyed this fall has allowed the team to exercise a diverse array of young depth as well, such as Blair’s little sister Cambell, a freshman who has 11 steals this fall. Senior Clara Kohnen has accumulated 16 steals as a backup de- fender, while Donahoe’s little sister Mollie, also a freshman, has scored two goals and racked up 21 steals this fall.
Show Low (9-5, 3-2)
The Spartans have depth in goal as well, as Maddie Carlsen has maintained the stellar protection fellow senior Payten Schmidt held up to Oct. 26, when she injured a knee colliding with Chino Valley defender Tayler Elsea on the Cougars’ only goal of the game.
Ellis’ girls come into the state semifinals on an 18-1 tear in their past three games since falling, 6-1, to Nov. 6 opponent Northland Prep. Runner-up to St. Johns in the East Region, the Cougars were paced in their 2-1 win Nov. 3 over Snowflake by Mattea Anderson’s two goals.
let’s meet the teams
Although it would be easy to assume that dominance starts and ends with Mia Blair, who leads the Spartans with 22 goals this fall, Blair’s top statistical categories are actually points and assists, where she is one of the nation’s leaders at 2.3 per game.
His Cougars will do their part if they can repeat, in their semifinal, what they did Sept. 22 at St. Johns, with Foster’s daughter, Madison, kicking two goals and adding an assist in the 4-1 win.
But Schmidt and Carlsen should be at full strength in goal for their game against Show Low, a 2-1 winner over Snowflake in their play-in game for the semifinals.
Anderson, the team leader in points on the season with 45, is ably assisted up front by team assist leader and fellow senior Cassidy Law. Law had an assist against Snowflake and is second on the team in goals to Anderson.
St. Johns (9-2, 5-0)
Another senior, Haley McPeak, has been both an able goalkeeper for Show Low this fall and a goal scorer. The only Cougar to have played more than 10 games this fall, she led her region with 124 saves.
The team Michael Blair is most wary of, outside of nemesis Chino Valley, is St. Johns. The stingiest defense in 2A girls soccer, next to the Spartans, the Redskins allowed just two goals all season by its East Region opponents and more than one goal in just three games this fall, all to non-region opponents.
Although junior midfielder Adelaide Meier has contributed three goals this fall, the seven other contributors on field statistics for the Cougars are young and will be facing their first state semifinal test against Northland Prep.
Two of those were their only two losses--their season opener against Chino Valley and their regular season finale, a 4-0 shutout at Northland Prep. In between, St. Johns outscored its other nine oppo- nents 41-4, utilizing a bench of just two varsity contributors. The leading goal scorer and only double-digit goal scorer this fall for the Redskins is senior Liberty Raban, also the team leader with 28 points.
Freshman striker Mackenze Kulish has proved up to the task in the regular season, scoring eight goals and adding six assists.
Paul Otto’s daughter, Ellie, a freshman midfielder, was second on the team with eight goals this fall. She would outscore even her older sister, Bella, a senior forward who had four goals this fall.
Senior Melanie Gardner has contributed a goal to the Cougar cause this fall, along with three other freshmen--Lindsey Lewis, Mayzee Lipps and Marissa Randall.
Ellie Otto was one of four first-year players who stepped up to contribute to the Redskins’ offensive attack immediately this fall, along with Avery Richardson, Kayme Smith and Aubrie Wilson.
Those three freshmen combined for 12 goals and seven assists during the regular season. When they were not assisting each other, they and their five other teammates up front were on the receiving end of 11 assists from team leader Kinley Crosby, a junior.
Anchoring the defense are experienced seniors Avery James and Kasidee Johnson. They are supplemented by junior Stephanie Lillie and sophomores Brooke Bastress and Kansas Nielsen.
Senior Joelle Krough (No. 5) anchors the defense for sec- ond-ranked Chino Valley (Chino Valley girls socce photo)
The final line of defense is junior goalkeeper Tynesia Little, who had six shutouts this fall.
Sophomores Monserrat Cahueque and Addison Kotterman have combined for 12 saves backing up McPeak in goal this fall, and Ca- hueque has rotated up to add a couple of goals and six assists to her credit.