Battling cold weather and an uneven field that produced several unpredictable bounces, the Montezuma-Cortez High School girls’ soccer team lost at home to Telluride, 4-1, on March 28.
Leading Telluride to the win was senior Kenzie Zaumseil, who consistently picked her way through the Lady Panthers’ defense and scored four goals, including a short shot from inside the box five minutes into the game to put her team ahead 1-0.
Zaumseil scored her second goal of the game in the 38th minute when senior Mary Lynch fired a hard shot off the left goalpost and the ball deflected back towards the center of the net, off Zaumseil’s foot, and in.
“I was just in my head today and I was quick on my feet,” said the Telluride goal scorer. “My shots were where they needed to be.”
Trailing 2-0 with time running out in the first half, the Lady Panthers received a spark from freshman midfielder McKenzie Howerton, who fired a shot from 30 yards out into an empty net. The goal occurred after Telluride’s goalie fell to the ground while battling a group of M-CHS players for the ball.
“The ball kind of hit off the goalie and the ball was right in front of me, so I had to try and get my foot on it,” Howerton said. “It wasn’t exactly how I planned. My foot kind of flopped a little, but I guess it still worked.”
Looking to even things up in the second half, the Lady Panthers put together some nice offensive possessions before falling victim to bad luck when Zaumseil drilled the ball into the upper-right corner of the net from 35 yards out on a shot that she intended to be a pass.
Zaumseil then struck one final time after getting behind the M-CHS defense in the 78th minute and scoring shooting from the left side of the box into the right corner of the net.
“There were lapses where we got away from our game plan,” Lady Panthers’ head coach Nate Ross explained. “Defensively, we did not play a great game as far as marking and staying with runners.”
Although Ross admitted that he team could improve defensively, he noted several positives in his team’s performance, including players’ attempts to stick to the game plan and the play of sophomore goalie Elena Cosner.
“Elena had her first real test, her first real bombardment of shots,” Ross said. “I thought she played very well and made a lot of good saves. Obviously, she’s not going to get every save, but overall, she had a very good game.”
Now 1-1-0 on the season, M-CHS will return to the practice field before traveling to face Alamosa on March 31.