Archive for Sunday, March 30, 2008

Steamboat Springs freshman Hayley Brookshire spins around her defender Saturday before dashing toward the endline. Brookshire's efforts eventually resulted in a Sailors goal. She finished the game with three assists as the team ran up the score on Delta, 10-0.

Photo by Joel Reichenberger

Steamboat Springs freshman Hayley Brookshire spins around her defender Saturday before dashing toward the endline. Brookshire's efforts eventually resulted in a Sailors goal. She finished the game with three assists as the team ran up the score on Delta, 10-0.

Hat trick helps Sailors to win

Victory avenges early-season draw

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Steamboat Springs' Coutrney Garth races Delta's Brooke Gardner for a loose ball Saturday in the Sailors' 10-0 victory against the Panthers. Steamboat returns to action Tuesday at home against Rifle.

— It was her favorite goal of Saturday's game - and perhaps her favorite moment of the season.

"That last one was pretty sick," Steamboat Springs sophomore McKenzie Worden said. "I got the ball inside the box but had a defender on me. I pulled it back and deked her a couple times, then got a shot off with my left foot."

The best part for the Steamboat Springs High School girls soccer team was that the goal was as meaningless as they come. Worden slammed the ball into the back of the net for her third goal of the day and the team's 10th, part of a 10-0 shellacking of Delta. The rout avenged the 3-3 draw the same two teams played to just one week ago.

Delta took the ball from the opening touch and pushed 30 yards deep into Sailors territory. Steamboat controlled the rest of the half, and the majority of the rest of the game. The ball rarely ventured across the midfield stripe for more than a few seconds and Delta failed to register a single shot in the first 40 minutes.

"It came down to two things," Steamboat coach Rob Bohlmann said when explaining the difference between the games. "One, most importantly, you could see the lack of passion we played with in that (first) game. You could also see the demands of a 4 1/2 hour road trip. Obviously, they weren't the same team we saw a week ago. When we went down there, we had to deal with the same thing."

A steady offense fueled the big win. The Sailors dictated the tempo of the game by passing the ball around the tightly packed Delta defense and waiting for the right opportunity to slash in for a shot.

Steamboat connected on its third try, a goal off the foot of Emi Birch. Miranda Schrock generated the assist after getting tangled up with a pair of Delta defenders 15 feet in front of the goal. She booted the ball back and away from the scrum, and Birch hammered in a 1-0 lead in the eighth minute.

Steamboat managed 12 more shots in the half and five more goals, two each coming from Worden and Kiersten Henry.

Delta, meanwhile, didn't get a shot off until the second half and forced Steamboat goalie Hanna Berglund into just one save.

"It came down to our work ethic. If you come out with that passion, the soccer will be taken care of," Bohlmann said. "Our possession was a function of everyone working together in support. The result of group possession is good opportunities."

Hustle and heart

Worden and Henry, both sophomores, weren't the only young faces to play big roles. Steamboat's dominance often came thanks to hustle plays by freshman Hayley Brookshire.

Playing the right forward position, Brookshire commanded the sideline. She beat her defender to a loose ball early in the first half, raced down the line and gained just enough space to cut a pass in toward the box, right in front of the goal. Henry arrived at the same time as the ball and slid in the team's second goal.

Brookshire won a similar duel 10 minutes later, turning her opponent around before again racing for the endline. The defense caught up to her, but the ball trickled over the endline, setting up a corner kick.

Brookshire again directed the ball right in front of the net, this time to the foot of a charging Schrock to give Steamboat a 3-0 lead.

"Flank play was a highlight for our game," Bohlmann said. "Haley, she found the timing and the rhythm to combine with players. She came out wide to create her space and was able to get in with angled runs.

"It was exceptional."

Steamboat will try to maintain Saturday's passion Tuesday when the team welcomes Rifle.

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