EAGLES SHOW NO RUST
First-half scoring flurry gets Thompson Valley past Berthoud
BERTHOUD >> Almost two weeks removed from a season-opening draw against Poudre, the Thompson Valley girls soccer team showed no signs of spring break rust Tuesday night.
After getting back together for their first practice since the break Monday, the Eagles scored early and often to grab their first win of the season, 10-0, over the Spartans at Max Marr Field.
The game ended less than seven minutes into the second half when Sammie Lewis knocked in the 10th goal for the Eagles.
“We had a really great practice last night; it was our first practice since spring break. And they actually killed it,” Thompson Valley head coach Randy Chase said. “Spring break practice coming back is usually hard because it’s a lot of time off and they really did well. We really hit it hard, so they were really ready to go.”
The game-winning goal for the Eagles came quickly. Three and a half minutes into the game, Charlee Durtsche found the back of the net to give Thompson Valley a 1-0 lead and the Eagles never let up in their attack.
Sixteen minutes into the game, they were already ahead 4-0 and got five more first-half goals, the last of which came from Brooke Matheson to give her a first-half hat trick.
“I was really excited for today because I have a couple of friends on the other team and I love playing soccer,” Matheson said. “I played a little during spring break to keep in shape, but I was really happy to have a game after spring break. We really wanted to do well and compose ourselves, play like a state team and not play down to their level and just quickly get in and out.”
That is exactly what the Eagles did. They had a couple of chances to end the game before halftime, but couldn’t get a shot to go in.
Thompson Valley spent much of the game on the attack and Berthoud goalkeeper Abigail Speer faced a flurry of shots. She did make her share of saves as the Spartans, under firstyear head coach Dylan Owens, dropped their season opener.
Six different Eagles scored in the first half as almost the entire team saw some playing time in the victory, which was something Chase wanted to see against the Spartans.
“We were trying to give everybody some equity and some time,” Chase said. “We want to see everybody play. The best practice is for them to be able to be on the field playing a game so we want to give them the most time we can.”
The Eagles have high expectations this year after losing in the second round of the playoffs last season. After going 14-2-1 last season with the most wins since at least 2009, the team is thinking about a state championship. But they know there is a lot of work to do to get there just
two games into the season.
“We want to go on and win a state championship, so we want to play that way and we want to practice towards that and that is what we do every time we come out,” Chase said. “We’re not there yet. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’re going to keep working on it all the way through. But they are looking pretty good. We’re going to keep sharpening.”
Chase knows the team, especially the returning players have the hunger to go further in the playoffs than they did a year ago. He feels like that could be an advantage as the season goes along.
Last year’s run ended in heartbreaking fashion with a 1-0 loss to Northfield.
“There is a big hunger for them to want to go all the way, so that is huge,” Chase said. “We want to ride that wave, for sure.”
“I hope we go farther this year,” Matheson added. “I think we have a good chance to.”
Even though Berthoud is a team that has struggled in recent years and is looking to turn the corner in Owens’ first season, the Eagles were able to get a good look at how good they can be in Tuesday’s game.
Both teams’ next opponent is Loveland. The Spartans will host the Red Wolves on Wednesday while the Eagles will host them on Thursday.