After a disappointing start to the home season for the Star Valley soccer teams in the home opener last Saturday against the powerhouse squads the Rock Springs Tigers brought to the Valley, the Braves bounced back in a big way with a decisive win for both the boys and girls against the Evanston Red Devils on Monday. The girls got proceedings kicked off with a big 4-1 victory in their match and the boys followed suit toppling the Utah border patrollers 4-0 with goals from 34 different players in the match.
The girls started slightly slower than they did in their match with Rock Springs 2 days prior, a game that featured 5 goals in the first 15 minutes, on Monday after 20 minutes had passed neither team had yet to register a quality scoring chance let alone managed to make the net move at all. The 2 squads appeared to be feeling each other out early on and the trap defenses on each side were doing a magnificent job taking away the ball and when they couldn’t do that they at least took away any shooting lanes until Aubrey Moyer managed to break the scoring seal in the 20th minute and some change as the senior gave the Braves their first lead at home of the year.
Moyer wouldn’t be finished scoring either as she would net a 2nd tally in the 2nd half as she got the 1st goal of each half and made it 3-0 Star Valley at the 15 minute mark of the latter half of play, adding to her stellar senior season to this point. Kenna Merritt would be responsible for the other 2 Braves goals on the afternoon, netting the 2nd goal of the game with 15 minutes left in the first half of play and then scoring again with 17 minutes left in the game to make the scores 2-0 and 4-0 respectively.
It seemed as though both half were simply being played on replay to the untrained eyes in attendance and watching the stream live on SVI with the same ladies scoring at similar time spots in the same order in each half until Evanston’s Keyla Renova would break up the remake of the half 1 by netting Evanston’s only goal of either game between the boys and girls with less than 5 minutes left to play. This was a huge bounce back for the girls team who not only got a much needed win after Rock Springs came to town 2 days earlier but also getting a decisive victory over an Evanston team the ladies tied with earlier at a neutral site this season.
Speaking of a game of vengeance the boys dropped their 1st match with Evanston this season back in March 3-1 and came back with some thunder on their home field Monday shutting out the Red Devils 4-0 and getting goals from 4 different shooters in the process. The offensive explosion came off the cleats of Jesus Allred who had the Braves lone goal in the home opener, Kayson Haderlie, Kristoff Buehler, and Cayden Roberts who all not only managed to put their name in the scorecard in the game but like much of their team also played 2 ways incredibly well not allowing the Red Devils any extending time of possession in the Star Valley end.
Allred broke the scoring in the 26th minute of the match on a corner kick that glanced off his head and found it’s way across the goalline and into the netting and 7 minutes later Haderlie would double the Braves lead to give them a 2-0 advantage at halftime. The 2nd half would play out much like the first with Buehler’s goal coming 11 minutes in and Roberts capping off the afternoon events with his goal with 5:14 remaining in the game to give the Braves a decisive and hopefully momentum-grabbing 4-0 victory over a 4A west rival who continues to struggle defensively this season having allowed 44 goals over their 11 games to this point, which is nearly double the number of goals allowed as the 2nd worst defensive team to this point Natrona County who have allowed 26 goals through 10 games.
The Braves will see those Natrona Mustangs on Friday which you can catch at 2 and 4pm on SVI, but the Braves next action will be at home against the Jackson Broncs also at 2 and 4pm today again on SVI.
