The Lady Wave soccer team closed out its season Thursday with a 1-0 loss against Incline Village.
The first half of the game was rough for the girls. Fallon coach Lance Lattin said the team was hesitant and not rushing to get to the ball. Late in the first half, the Lady Highlanders rolled a goal past the Fallon goalkeeper in what Lattin said was a beautiful shot.
“It was scored from about 22 yards out or so,” he said. “It was an outside shot and was just perfect. It hit the top bar and went in.”
In the second half, the Lady Wave came back strong and pushed for victory. Lattin said the girls experienced a momentum shift, bringing a more aggressive offense and put lots of pressure on the ball.
“They started attacking the ball quicker,” he said. “They started passing better, there were more interchanges between players.”
While they had a number of shots on the Incline net, though, they could not get a goal to tie the game and the match closed with Incline in the lead. Lattin said he felt the second half was an improvement on the first as well as an improvement on their first game against Incline.
Lattin felt Alexis Jarrett stepped up during the match and played hard. He also praised Minny Fagundas for her control of the ball and patience during plays; the coach said this was something the team as a whole needed to improve on.
Adelle Brown was also commended for her goal keeping. During the second half, Brown was put into the field and performed well; however, she was fouled by Incline and twisted her ankle badly enough to be removed from play for the rest of the match. Lattin recalled Samantha Hines performed well in the net, after taking over for Brown, and showed promise for continuing as a goalkeeper.
“Sam’s one I’ve been pleased with in her debut as goalkeeper for varsity,” he said.
Boys Soccer
The boys soccer’ team also had its final match in Incline Thursday, losing to the Highlanders 15-0.
Coach Miguel Orduna said it was a difficult game in terms of the skill difference. Fallon has a young team while Incline’s has won the state championship several times. The weather also played a factor with heavy rains pouring onto the field; while it started during the girls’ game, Lattin said it was pooling on the field once the boys started.
The Greenwave played a heavy defensive game, holding the line against Incline’s players. It was hard, but Orduna said they played their best. He noted Luis and Erik Orozco both had good control of the ball and made some great plays that stymied the opposition.
“They really slowed some of the guys down,” he said. “They were just on fire that day.”
Orduna said he was already looking forward to next year and had some ideas of what to change to make things better. He’s confident the team will do even better next year.
Neither team qualified for the regional tournament occurring in Winnemucca this week. However, the girls came just short; according to Lattin, had they won one more game and tied another, they would have qualified. The season went well, though, and he was happy with how the team did.
“Overall, it was a steep learning curve for our team this season,” Lattin said. “But I feel like, even though it didn’t go quite as well as we had hoped, next year we’re going to be so far ahead of where we were this year.”