Quick Hitters
Shamrocks the 2 seed in 3A, will open vs. Show Low
The Yuma Catholic football team received the No. 2 seed and will open the 3A state playoffs against No. 15 Show Low, it was announced Saturday morning.
The Shamrocks (8-2 overall) will host the Cougars (3-6) at 7 p.m. Friday at Ricky Gwynn Stadium.
The winner of that game will face the winner of No. 7 Odyssey Institute (8-2) and No. 10 Safford (6-4) in the quarterfinals next Friday. YC just beat Odyssey Institute, 63-14, this past Friday.
No. 1 Northwest Christian (9-1), No. 3 Snowflake (8-1), No. 4 Page (9-1) and No. 5 Valley Christian (7-3) make up the rest of the top five seeds.
Coyotes win big at home
GLENDALE — Michael Grabner scored two short-handed goals to help the Arizona Coyotes beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 7-1 on Saturday night.
Clayton Keller, Vinnie Hinostroza, Jordan Oesterle, Derek Stepan and Richard Panik also had goals for the Coyotes, who had a season-high.
The Coyotes (5-5-0) have scored 22 goals in the last five games after a slow start in which they were shut out in three of their first four games.
For 21 straight games prior to Saturday, the Arizona Western women’s soccer team thoroughly dominated the competition.
The Matadors outscored their first 21 opponents 75-11. Only three times in their first 21 games did they ever trail, and never for long or by more than one goal.
Then came Saturday night, when out of nowhere the Matadors were thoroughly dominated for 90 minutes at the worst possible time.
Paradise Valley came to Yuma and put a 4-0 thumping on AWC — the NJCAA’s No. 1-ranked team — in the Region I final, sending the Pumas to next weekend’s West District Final and leaving the Matadors’ fate unknown.
“We just didn’t show up, and they did,” AWC coach Nicole Acosta said.
Twelve teams qualify for the NJCAA Division I national tournament (Nov. 1217 in Foley, Ala.), eight of which qualify automatically as district champs. The final four spots go to recipients of at-large bids, which is what the Matadors (21-1 overall) must hope for now.
“We have a good chance, but we won’t know for sure,” said Acosta, who added that the team will continue practicing.
The Matadors had certainly hoped it wouldn’t come to this.
Though both regularseason meetings between AWC and Paradise Valley (18-4-1) were close — 2-1 on Sept. 1, 1-0 on Oct. 20 — the Matadors took the lead fairly early in both and never surrendered it.
But on Saturday, it was the Pumas who struck early, with Katie Townsend heading in a cross from Karina Martinez in the 12th minute.
Two minutes later, Marisela Labansat lofted in a shot over AWC sophomore goalie Jazzmin Forwood, who was filling in for usual starter Cyan Scott (concussion), an All-ACCAC Second-Teamer.
It marked the first multigoal deficit of the year for the Matadors, and Acosta acknowledged the team looked like it didn’t know how to respond.
“Yeah, that’s what it seemed like to me,” she said. “There’s no motivation or anything. It was just one of those games, and it’s unfortunate it was the championship game.”
Townsend added her second goal of the game in the 34th minute, beating Forwood to her right on a shot from distance, and the Pumas went into the half up 3-0.