As Oct. 29 proved, there remains one constant at the end of a Division V soccer season: Camp Verde High School will be back.
While the seventh-seeded Cowboys girls team fell less than 10 minutes short of a road upset of No. 2 seed Round Valley High School, 3-2, a young No. 12 boys team found itself on the other end of a 5-1 decision at fifth-seeded Phoenix Country Day School.
“It just wasn’t our night,” said head coach Dave Miller, whose Cowboys [4-7-1] were deadlocked with the Eagles at halftime after also tying them, 1-1, and beating them 1-0 in earlier regular-season matchups. “We played them tough all year long, but we just didn’t move the ball as well as we did earlier in the season.”
CVHS tied the Eagles before halftime on a goal by junior John Castillo, off an assist from sophomore Nate Schultz.
“As time wore on, we started taking a few more chances and left the defense a little more exposed. We had them that way earlier in the season, but those guys came together at the right time of year.”
Although sophomore Preston Maynard’s “excellent goalkeeping” kept the Cowboys in the game, the Eagles’ goalkeeper only needed to make two saves to secure the victory.
“We’re young,” Miller said. “We’ll have a boatload of seniors next year, but we were trying to play the ball up.”
Even younger, though, is head coach Pat Allen’s CVHS girls team, which had state runner-up Round Valley down 2-1 in the second half behind goals by freshmen strikers Lupe Orta and Tyra Smith.
For the full story, please see the Wednesday, Nov. 11, issue of the Camp Verde Journal.
