The Pagosa Springs High School Lady Pirate soccer team picked up a win in its first game back from spring break and moved to 2-1 on the season.
The Lady Pirates traveled to Del Norte to take on the Tigers on Monday, March 30, winning 4-2 behind a couple of late second-half goals.
“I’m proud of the resiliency they showed,” said coach Trevor Gian. “We’re going to have to kind of play with that heart and that mentality that, no matter what, we don’t give up. And I love that we got a chance to see that.”
The girls fell behind 1-0 early in the game after Del Norte scored on a quick counter-attack.
The Lady Pirates got two goals back late in the first half.
Gian emphasized that the Lady Pirates played with more purpose and effort at the end of the first half.
The girls started off hot in the second half, noted Gian, but they were unable to put the ball in the back of the net.
“We did a good job of, again, creating opportunities,” he said. “I mean, pretty wide open looks, you know, one-on-one with a keeper, getting behind the defense [and] 18- to 20-yard kind of open shots. Again, [we] just weren’t able to finish.”
The Lady Pirates found themselves tied with the Tigers again after they netted their second of the game.
Tatiana Monterroso and Ximena Garcia found a way to break the tie, combining on a breakaway goal that was scored by Garcia as the Lady Pirates reclaimed the lead.
They were able to add one more goal as Xyra Belarmino scored on a penalty kick after Del Norte got called for a handball in the box.
“A little more stressful than I was hoping, to be honest,” Gian said. “I thought maybe we could have gone up three, four nothing pretty quick in the early part of that first half, which would have changed a few things. But, again, all in all, a successful outcome. Getting the win is really nice.”
The Lady Pirates had 30 shots in the game, but just 14 of them were on goal, Gian noted.
The Lady Pirates will travel to Telluride on Thursday, April 2, and then finish the week off with a home match against Montezuma-Cortez on Saturday, April 4.
Action in Telluride will begin at 4 p.m., while Saturday’s matchup will begin at 11 a.m.
Gian noted he wants to work on finishing, being first to the ball, attacking the ball out of the air and set pieces like goal kicks and corners before the games later this week.
“I’d like to see us building off of what we learned on Monday,” Gian said. “But at the end of the day, we’re going to have to sort of have that mentality as we go through the season that no team’s too big for us. We’re not going to quit on the field.”
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