The Lady Wave soccer team celebrates Kourtnie Simper (right) scoring the team’s third goal with less than a minute left in the first half of Saturday’s playoff win over North Tahoe in Fallon.
Photo by Thomas Ranson.
The Fallon girls soccer team is one win away from going to the 3A state tournament next week in Las Vegas.
After taking the No. 2 seed from Lowry last week, Fallon held off North Tahoe, 3-2, in the Northern 3A regional quarterfinals on Saturday at the Edward Arciniega Athletic Complex.
The last time Fallon advanced in the postseason came last decade when it defeated Lowry, 3-1, in Elko only to fall to Truckee, 2-1, in overtime.
This weekend will have an eerie feel.
This year’s coach, Macy Myers, was a senior on that 2015 team and she has her squad traveling to Elko for a high-noon Friday showdown with either Truckee or Fernley, who played a quarterfinals match on Monday.
The winner advances to face the Elko-South Tahoe winner in Saturday’s regional championship at 10 a.m.
“Every game, I still get the same nerves from when I was playing,” Myers said. “You feel like you’re going to throw up with excitement and nerves at the same time. I’m probably just as nervous as the players. Going into this week and heading up to Elko, we probably have the best shot in CCHS history at making it to state with this group of girls. They want it really bad.”
BIG EARLY LEAD
On Saturday, North Tahoe gave everything it had to prevent that from happening.
Fallon jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first half that was bookended by goals from the Simper sisters. Freshman Kylee Simper scored on a through pass 13 minutes into the game, and senior Kira Johnston tapped the ball in after taking advantage of the goalie’s botched save.
Kylee Simper lofted Fallon’s third goal to the upper-right corner of the net with less than a minute left in the half.
The last goal caught Simper by surprise, and Myers said the team has been working on those shots recently in practice.
“We’ve been practicing those shots and for her to go to the upper side net,” Myers said. “If she can just follow through and consistently land on the foot she kicks it with, she’ll be upper 90 all the time. She just has a tendency to kick it a bit high. Practice finally paid off.”
Fallon didn’t score in the second half and thwarted several late North Tahoe attempts after the Lakers scored in the 60th and 68th minutes to bring the deficit to one.
“I was definitely nervous for a little bit,” senior defender Sofia Basurto said. “I was just trying to clear it no matter what. We just had to push and try our hardest.”
Basurto added that the team’s work this season and the seniors’ commitment since playing as freshmen have Fallon on the brink of playing for a regional championship.
“It means that all of the hard work the seniors have put in since freshman year is finally paying off,” she said. “I’m just really happy to lead my team in the right direction. It just means teamwork and unity and I’m really proud to do this for my town, for my team and the program.”
STATE AT STAKE
Basurto is hopeful that Fallon will punch a ticket to its first-ever girls soccer state tournament.
“It feels epic. It’s kind of crazy,” she said. “I would have never imagined it my freshman year, and now that I’m a senior, it’s awesome. I think this is going to be our year.”
Although Karlie Simper is a freshman, she and several players on the team get reps by playing competitive club ball. The practice, both in high school and club, led Fallon to a second-place finish in the 3A East.
“It’s not surprising to me because this team has put in so many hours of practice,” she said. “We’ve worked our tails off, and it just shows that when you’re on the field, it comes down to who wants it. The whole team wants it and I’m thankful to play with them.”
Myers and her coaching staff have preached on positioning and fundamentals in practice in addition to making sure the team has the endurance to compete.
“We’re paying more attention so that they are positionally aware and focusing from the fundamentals up, taking a lot of time each practice to go over fundamentals and positionally aware of how many can be horizontal and how many can be vertical,” said Myers, who added the team will focus on discipline and fine-tuning this week in practice.
“They’re a lot more fit this year. We made fitness a priority this year.”
The senior core that includes Basurto, Johnston, Madison Lewis and Natalie Jacques has been pivotal to the team’s success this season. Despite losing a teammate earlier in the year, Myers said players have stepped up. She awarded Basurto with captain honors, too.
“The seniors are very solid. We have a really good group,” Myers said. “Losing a player midseason is tough and shakes the girls up. We had a lot of people working really hard to fill that role. We didn’t know right away how we would fill it but the next couple of games following that, the girls stepped up.
“All four seniors have been really dedicated and intense. Their positivity keeps the vibe up.”