Lady Horsemen beat Robertson 5-0 to claim district title
Oct. 23—It took 35 seconds for the St. Michael's Lady Horsemen to set the tone.
They showed the Las Vegas Robertson Lady Cardinals their offense is more than just Elsa Ranney-Smith and Grace Sandoval. St. Michael's used a balanced scoring attack, as four players scored goals — including a pair by Sandoval — in a 5-0 girls soccer win Friday afternoon at Christian Brothers Athletic Complex.
With the win, the Lady Horsemen secured their second straight District 2 1A-3A title and an automatic bid to the Class 1A-3A State Tournament.
They have an 8-0 district record and ended the regular season with a 13-4 mark.
They also hope that they showed state tournament opponents they will need to do more than just mark Ranney-Smith and Sandoval — who have combined for 44 goals on the season — on defense.
Sophomore Jada Lujan made an impression upon the Robertson defense within seconds of the match's first touch.
Lady Cardinals defender Aubrey Weinstein collected a 50-50 ball from the air and tried to pass it to goalkeeper Lexie Cunico, but a stalking Lujan swooped in and poked the pass between Cunico's legs and into the net for a 1-0 lead.
It was Lujan's fifth goal of the season.
"It was one of those 50-50 balls you see on the wing," Lujan said. "You just gotta win them."
St. Michael's did plenty of that. Robertson only managed two shots on goal, making Lady Horsemen goalkeeper Milena Keene perhaps the loneliest player on the field.
It took St. Michael's 30 minutes before it struck again, but variety was again the spice of life.
Ranney-Smith found a streaking Tara Schneider up the middle of the field and Schneider rocketed a shot to the right side of the goal for a two-goal advantage.
Farrah Baker, the Lady Horsemen junior midfielder, missed a few shots before she finally connected on a pretty shot as she stretched for a shoulder-height pass from Schneider in front of the goal. She floated the ball over Cunico to cap the scoring in the 78th minute.
St. Michael's head coach Alfonso Camarena said the team's performance underscored the overall talent it has, but sometimes gets overshadowed by Ranney-Smith and Sandoval.
"It's 11 players on the field," Camarena said.
"Even my fullbacks can score. Of course, Elsa is super-talented and Cameron is top-notch in the state, but we have 11 players for a reason," he added.
Sandoval made her presence felt with a pair of goals in the second half, including one off a corner kick cross from Ranney Smith she headed into the left side of the net for a 4-0 advantage.
St. Michael's will await its seed for the 1A-3A bracket, which will be announced Sunday, as will Robertson, thanks to a 13-5-2 record and a 6-2 mark in the district.
