With state at stake, it’s Bonanza’s turn

Nick Christensen

Friday, Feb. 20, 2004 | 10:23 a.m.

Last week, the Palo Verde girls' soccer team proved to be the big cats of the Sunset division, trouncing Bonanza 4-1 for the Sunset championship.

Thursday night at the Bettye Wilson Soccer Complex, Bonanza proved to be Southern Nevada's big cats.

The Bengals' Rachel Taylor, who borrowed a teammate's uniform after leaving hers at home, headed a corner kick past Palo Verde goalie Ashley Johannes three minutes into the second overtime of Thursday's NIAA 4A Southern Nevada soccer final. McQueen won the Northern Nevada championship in November.

Bonanza struck first, after Mia Tofano put the Bengals up late in the first half. But about 10 minutes into the second, the Panthers' Kayla Lambert tied the score at 1-1, a score that would stick for the next hour of soccer.

But it was the last two plays of the game that were the most crucial. Bonanza had a failed throw-in after a long delay following the ball rolling onto an adjacent field. After an out of bounds on Palo Verde near the goal, Bonanza's Steffany Becker kicked the ball near the net, and Taylor was there to head it in.

Taylor said she was unsure what happened after she headed the ball.

"I thought it was out, but then everybody jumped on me," Taylor said. "It feels awesome. We came out last time and weren't ready. Just because we're not region champs doesn't mean we can't be state champs."

Bonanza coach Gerald Kearney said his team's plan to make up for last week's regional loss was to simply put it behind them.

"We didn't even care about the Sunset game. We knew this was the one that counted," he said. "I was hoping they'd be overconfident, and we caught them off guard."

But, Kearney said, the turning point in his team's postseason was their shootout semifinal win against Silverado on Tuesday.

"We learned a lot about ourselves," Kearney said. "We knew how to compete and we knew what it took to win. Tactics don't win games, players do. When they made up their minds that was it."

Not that Palo Verde didn't have its chances. Palo had several shots on goal in the overtime, including one shot that was barely nudged over the crossbar by Bonanza goalie Katie Simons.

"There was nothing left to give. They got a very good corner in the double overtime," said somber Palo Verde coach Marc Hechter. "We had our chances, we had four shots on frame, hard balls that were either saved or slightly askew, and you just can't argue about that."

Kearney gave much credit to his goalie, who left immediately after the win to attend a play at her school, for the Bengals' postseason success.

"She is by far one of the best goalies in town, and one of the reasons we're at where we're at," Kearney said. "She hates playing goalie, but she does it because her team needs her in goal."