With little time remaining Tuesday afternoon, April 8, Montezuma-Cortez’s Di’Nya Manuel knew she might not get another chance to achieve a desired soccer feat that a teammate had already accomplished.
Bayfield goalkeeper Lily Muir had even less time to deny her.
After slowing the freshman’s straight-on, 79th-minute shot, Muir couldn’t twist backward, drop to all fours, and scramble swiftly enough to stop the ball from sneaking over the line. This gave Manuel her first prep-level hat trick and the Lady Panthers a thorough 9-0 road win.
“I tried to take some riskier shots,” Manuel said. “Some did not work out, but you know, that last one was really good. I enjoyed playing that. Our combinations, our passes … I think we did really great with that, honestly.”
Manuel also contributed moments before her clincher by sending in a pass to senior Jordi Mahler. Mahler then rocketed a 78th-minute shot over Muir and into the far upper corner for the guests’ first second-half goal after a fierce first-half flurry.
Freshman Mia Glazner initially got Montezuma-Cortez (4-1-1 overall, 2-1-0 3A Intermountain aka Southwestern) on Wolverine Country Stadium’s scoreboard in the second minute, via an assist from freshman Kyndall Schmitt. Schmitt then struck in the seventh after gaining possession of a Manuel shot blocked toward the goal line, wide of the post at Muir’s right, by BHS’ Kambria Bailey, and then shooting through Muir’s ready mitts.
Only 17 seconds after the subsequent kickoff, Glazner converted a takeaway into a 3-0 advantage. Manuel made it 4-0 after receiving a close-quarters Schmitt pass and forcing her way through four Lady Wolverines for a 12th-minute marker. Manuel’s second score came in the 17th as she won a 1-on-1 against a drawn-out Muir, who tried smothering the attempt just inside Bayfield’s 18-yard box, by sidestepping the goalie and angling the ball low and right.
Capitalizing on a poor clearance of a crossing pass played in by senior Luna Moore, Glazner completed her first-ever hat trick in the 25th minute, increasing the visitors’ advantage to 6-0. Still not finished, M-CHS booked a seventh goal in the 30th as Mahler zipped a shot low and to Muir’s back post.
BHS (0-4-0, 0-1-0) generated only one true scoring opportunity. Senior Sydney Rey’s free kick, taken during the second half from at least 35 yards away, curved right of M-CHS keeper Raegan Veach and safely out of bounds. The sophomore needed to make just one save, dropping to her knees and scooping up a 50th-minute Bayfield pass sent too far ahead of Rey but packing enough pace to force Veach into leaving her line to stop it well short.
“As a team, we really want to work together and communicate. I mean, some of us – like, half of our team – are freshmen, you know, and then we’ve got a bunch of seniors who want to accomplish great things,” said Manuel. “So as a team, we want to push to get closer and closer to our goal of winning league.”
Having secured their fourth shutout victory – and third on the road – this spring, the Lady Panthers will next host 3A Rifle on Saturday, April 12, at 1 p.m. RHS stood 3-2-0 overall (1-0-0 3A/2A Western Slope) before first hosting 3A Vail Mountain (4-1-1, 3-1-0 WSL) on the 10th. Results were unavailable at press time.
The Lady Wolverines will next travel Friday, April 11, to Gunnison to face Crested Butte Community School (5-3-2 overall, 2-0-0 2A Intermountain-South). The neutral-site kickoff at Western Colorado University’s Katy O. Rady Field is set for 5 p.m. Bayfield will then return to resume league play the next afternoon at 2 against Alamosa.
