Camp Verde High School’s boys and girls soccer teams both had a successful week.
The girls team won four and drew once, two of the victories coming over Page High School by a combined score of 7-2. Junior Tyra Smith led the way with seven goals across the five games.
Overall, head coach Javier Pineda is happy with how the team, ranked No. 6 in the Arizona Interscholastic Association’s first poll on Tuesday, Sept. 19, is progressing as the games go by.
“Overall we played great. We still need to work on some things, especially getting in shape, but the girls made me proud of how they played,” Pineda said.
He was most happy about the 1-1 tie with St. Johns High School after losing to the Redskins 2-0 on Sept. 2.
“It was a great time to see how much we’ve improved and I’m so happy that they really play like we want. Everything that [we] practiced paid off,” Pineda said.
The girls next play in their Central Region opener at 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21, against Payson High School.
The boys team went 2-0 on the week against familiar opponents in Payson High School and Page High School, earning a shutout in both.
Against Payson, head coach David Miller said, they could have scored more than the four they did.
On the other hand, at Page, they generated plenty of chances but only converted the one.
“We had a ton of opportunities; we just couldn’t get a finish on it,” Miller said. “The score didn’t reflect how much we controlled the game.”
Miller said senior goalkeeper Preston Maynard was the highlight of the week. Maynard came up big in a couple of spots against both teams, stopping breakaway opportunities to maintain the shutouts.
The team, ranked No. 8 in the AIA’s first poll, played its last nonregion game at Northland Preparatory Academy on Tuesday, Sept. 19, but results were unavailable at press time. It opens region play at Page on Saturday, Sept. 23.
Having played its region opponents multiple times before it counts takes away the mystery from both teams.
“We’ll know what to expect from them and them from us too, they’ll know who our scorers are and what’s going on,” Miller said. “But we have a couple new wrinkles we saved for the region games to throw at them.”
Note: This story was updated with the both teams’ first ranking of the season in Conference 2A, per the AIA, on Tuesday, Sept. 19.
Cowboys Soccer Scoreboard
Girls
Tuesday, Sept. 12 vs. Page High School
Sand Devils 0
Cowboys 3 [Tyra Smith 3]
Friday and Saturday, Sept. 15 and 16 @ Show Low Invitational
Cowboys 3 [Alex Schaeffer 2, Smith]
Blue Ridge High School 1
Cowboys 4 [Smith 2, Schaeffer, Amanda Lozanilla]
Sand Devils 2
Cowboys 1 [Schaeffer]
St. Johns High School 1
Cowboys 3 [Lupe Orta, Schaeffer, Smith]
Payson High School 0
Boys
Tuesday, Sept. 12 @ Payson High School
Cowboys 4 [Joseph Jones 2, Brandon Cruz, Beto Torres]
Longhorns 0
Thursday, Sept. 14 @ Page High School
Cowboys 1 [Luis Venegas]
Sand Devils 0
