Saguaro Too Much for Bradshaw Mountain Girls Soccer in Loss

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The Bradshaw Mountain girls soccer team wasn’t able to keep up with the Saguaro Sabercats on the road Friday night in an 8-0 defeat.

Bradshaw Mountain faced the tough proposition of competing against the defending 4A Desert Sky champions while some key pieces battled injuries or illness, resulting in the team only bringing 15 players to the matchup.

The lack of depth caught up with Bradshaw Mountain in the latter part of each half, where the Sabercats did a majority of their damage on offense.

Photo by Torrence Dunham for Talking Glass Media.

Saguaro opened the scoring in the third minute with a goal but would then be held off the scoreboard until the 22nd minute.

That’s when the floodgates opened for Saguaro as they would score three more goals in the next 13 minutes to take a commanding 5-0 advantage into the second half.

Bradshaw Mountain held Saguaro for the first 24 minutes of the second half before the Sabercats were able to break through and add to their lead with a goal in the 64th minute.

They would score a pair of goals in the following five minutes to end the game.

“The girls played really well, most of that second half we held them, we frustrated them, but when we don’t have a real deep bench to go to and you only got two or three players, you get tired,” head coach John Sterling said. “That’s the biggest thing, we got tired.

Photo by Torrence Dunham for Talking Glass Media.

“We learned a lot tonight and that’s the key. This will pay dividends going forward for us.”

Saguaro controlled the ball for the majority of the game and only allowed Bradshaw Mountain a shot at the goal on a penalty kick.

Sterling attributed this to Saguaro’s good ball control and movement, which he says Bradshaw Mountain can learn from.

“If they didn’t see something that they liked or knew they couldn’t go forward with it, they just dropped it back,” he said. “That’s something we’ve worked on a lot and we need to learn to do.

Photo by Torrence Dunham for Talking Glass Media.

“They would just drop it back, cycle it through and then maybe come up the other side and they were real good at just probing where they wanted to go and trying to find that gap and then they would go forward and then if they didn’t have it they would drop it back again … That’s the sign of a good team.”

Bradshaw Mountain midfielder Charlize Ingoglia was proud of her team’s efforts considering the circumstances coming into the game.

“My team plays with a lot of heart, we don’t give up when it gets tough,” Ingoglia said. “We fought until the very end. They challenged us, they pushed us, they pushed our limits, but I just think we left our hearts on the field.”

Photo by Torrence Dunham for Talking Glass Media.

She adds the game prepares Bradshaw Mountain for region play, which gets underway in January.

“It gave us a taste of what a higher level team will feel like,” she said. “We know what we need to work on, this game made us learn a lot. Going into region, I think this will help us a lot.”

Bradshaw Mountain (1-3, 0-0 4A Grand Canyon) next plays Paradise Honors at home Monday at 5 p.m. The team then has a break for the holidays and next returns to the field on Jan. 5th at home against Eastmark.

To listen to the entire game recap including interviews with the coach and players, tune in to Talkin’ Central Arizona Sports with Torrence Dunham on Cast11.