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Truckee soccer: Girls edge defending state champs

Sylas Wright
swright@sierrasun.com
Truckee's Corinne Doerner competes in Wednesday's league game against South Tahoe. The Wolverines won 2-1.
Sylas Wright / Sierra Sun |

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The Truckee girls play a league game at Lowry on Friday and host Sparks on Wednesday, Oct. 7.

Truckee-South Tahoe girls soccer games are typically associated with physical play, low scores and a playoff-like atmosphere. Wednesday’s league clash was no different.

After a scoreless first half, the host Wolverines scored consecutive goals in the second half and fended off a late comeback attempt by the Vikings to hang on for a 2-1 win.

“It was a good second-half turnaround,” said Truckee coach Kyle Kelly, whose Wolverines are the only remaining undefeated team in Northern Division I-A play, at 7-0. “They (the Vikings) definitely made things interesting at the end with that goal. Our defense was a little gassed and they were throwing numbers forward.”



Truckee broke the stalemate in the 51st minute when freshman Ava Seelenfreund ran onto a long through-ball by Chloe Murpy and alertly lobbed a shot over the head of goalie Claudia Janese, who charged out of the box to challenge.

Nine minutes later, Truckee sophomore Olivia Vigano sent a through-ball up to freshman Amber Simonpietri, who fought through two defenders before slipping a low shot into the corner of the goal.



“Truckee ran those plays with precision — outstanding plays,” said South Tahoe coach Mark Salmon. “We expected them to move the ball and posses, and they did. Hats off to them. I wish we could play a team like that every week.”

In search of offense, Salmon moved Annie Brejc to forward late in the contest, and the sophomore responded with several quality shots on goal.

With 8 minutes left on the clock, Brejc fired a shot that hit off the near post and richocheted to teammate Maria Martinez, who hit it into the back of the net to cut the lead in half.

The Vikings continued to pressure the Truckee goal and nearly scored the equalizer on attempts by Brejc, Maria Martinez and Emma Dayberry.

Truckee sophomore goalie Izzy Abarno denied each attempt, however, including a point-blank shot by Dayberry that she punched over the crossbar.

“She made some big saves — game-savers,” Kelly said.

The South Tahoe loss dropped the defending state champs to 5-1-1 in league, placing them second. Fallon (4-2-1) is third and Lowry (4-1) fourth.


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