High Desert Soccer: Apple Valley girls beat Granite Hills in battle of league champions
The defending Desert Sky League and Mojave River League girls soccer champions squared off on Thursday night both looking for a big win early in the season.
The MRL ultimately emerged victorious as Apple Valley defeated Granite Hills 3-1.
“It’s a big morale booster, any time we come to Granite we want to win, it's one of our rivals,” Apple Valley head coach Nicole Stephens said. “We know Granite is always good, they also got good girls. We take it, we celebrate, and we move forward.”
The Sun Devils and Cougars also played at the start of last season before both teams went on to win their respective leagues. Apple Valley won last year’s meeting 6-0.
Granite Hills not only kept the game closer but did so with a roster full of new starters after graduating nine seniors from last season.
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While the outcome ultimately did not go in his team’s favor, Granite Hills head coach Oleg Tsabur was proud of the way the Cougars played.
“We only have three seniors, and everybody else is pretty much really young and we are still missing quite a few players,” Tsabur said. “This is the first preseason game of the year for us and it doesn’t look like it in the score line but I was really impressed with how we never stopped fighting. I think we are only going to get better from here.”
Granite Hills got on the scoreboard first in the 13th minute via penalty kick.
Lianna Tsabur hustled for a loose ball in the box when an unsuspecting Apple Valley defender made an errant tackle that sent her to the ground. Tsabur then drilled the penalty kick into the top right corner to give the Cougars the lead.
After several near misses and goalkeeper saves early in the game, Sarah Fort tied the game at one in the 15th minute on a left-footed volley into the back of the net.
Two minutes later, Apple Valley took the lead as freshman Jadyn Bechtel drilled a shot from the outer right side of the penalty box that looped over the goalkeeper's head into the backside of the left net.
Aubrey Scott scored the only goal of the second half 14 minutes after halftime. Apple Valley finished with 11 shots on goal.
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Stephens expects this talented offensive front to play a big role in Apple Valley’s success this season.
“Well our defense is really strong, our back line is really strong (too),” Stephens said. “We have some talented forwards this year. I think that our offense is going to be what wins us some games this year.”
Player of the match
Fort scored the first of three goals for Apple Valley and was the driving force behind the attack for most of the game. Fort had several scoring chances in the game that were saved by Granite Hills goalkeepers Mylie Shepard and Roxanne Cerda.
They said it
Stephens on Apple Valley’s performance: “I thought we did really well. We possessed really well, we had our chances. Some we didn’t put in the back of the net but I thought we played really well today.”
Tsabur on where Granite Hills can improve: “Continuing to build the team chemistry. That is probably the biggest thing in high school soccer because we don’t really have time to develop. But once they build the chemistry, we put some patterns, put some guidelines in place and that chemistry falls into place.”
What’s next
Granite Hills continues going through the MRL gauntlet next week, beginning with a road game against Serrano on Dec. 4 and at Sultana on Dec. 7. Apple Valley is back on the road on Dec. 7 against Los Osos.
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: High Desert Girls Soccer: Apple Valley beats Granite Hills, moves to 2-0
