Division tightens up

Defending champ Bonanza finding some competition

SW/SE/SM/SL View--Bonanza High School's Mia Tofano attempts to score a goal during a game against Spring Valley High School, Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2005.--View Photo Christine H. Wetzel SW/SE/SM/SL View--Bonanza High School's Mia Tofano attempts to score a goal during a game against Spring Valley High School, Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2005.--View Photo Christine H. Wetzel SW/SE/SM/SL View--Bonanza High School's Mia Tofano attempts to score a goal during a game against Spring Valley High School, Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2005.--View Photo Christine H. Wetzel

Bonanza won its first-ever girls soccer title last season defeating Palo Verde, 2-1 in double overtime on a header by Rachel Taylor to capture the Southern Nevada girls soccer championship. This year coach Gerald Kearney and the Bengals are back to defend their title but may find the going tough as their Sunset Region Southwest Division is stronger than ever and the rest of the Valley features a plethora of talented teams that can challenge Bonanza for the crown.

The Bengals went 15-6-2 last season but started this season just 5-5-1 overall after suffering three losses to California teams in the Lady Devils Classic at Eldorado and a surprising loss to new conference member Spring Valley, 2-0 on Dec. 3. Bonanza went into the game without most of the muscle on its roster.

"Four of the best players on my team were playing in a tournament in North Carolina the first time we played them, Kearney said. "Without those girls on the team we ended up losing to both Spring Valley and Centennial."

Bonanza avenged that loss with a 7-0 shutout at Spring Valley on Jan. 12.

With six returning starters --- including junior Taylor, an All-Sunset selection; senior midfielder Mia Tofano, the co-MVP in the Sunset Region last year; junior midfielder Christina Dylag, an All-Sunset pick; and senior defender Steffany Becker, an All-Southwest Division selection --- Bonanza certainly has the talent to return to the Southern Nevada State Championship and should be a force to be reckoned with before all is said and done.

Kearney trumpeted the abilities of his star Tofano.

"We'll definitely see her on TV someday," Kearney said. "There's no doubt about it. She's already got a full-ride scholarship to St. Mary's College in California. A lot of people haven't heard of that college but for girls soccer, they're ranked in the top 10 in the country. The guy's already told her she's going to be a starter as a freshman coming in.

"To me she's like the biggest secret in the country because she's from Nevada, where we're kind of small and everything. If she lived in California, everybody would know about her. She's the best player I've ever coached, boy or girl. She's just amazing. She does stuff that you're not even sure what she just did. When she's on her game, she can win a game for you."

Tofano had a hat trick in Bonanza's win over Spring Valley.

Also helping the Bengals try and defend their title will be senior midfielder Kayla Bauder; her sister Courtney Bauder, who is the team's starting goalkeeper; Kailee Jones, also a goalie; Rachel Umatum; Callie Horn; Sierra Borelli; Haley Halverson; MacKenzie Kenner; Morgan Conley; Jillian Anderson and Rebecca Reil. Bonanza is certainly not short of talent.

"Our goalie Courtney Bauder hasn't been scored on yet this year," Kearney said.

Bonanza, which outscored its opponents 10-6 in the playoffs en route to winning last year's title, will be pushed in a division that suddenly looks a lot tougher with the addition of Spring Valley and the emergence of Sierra Vista. But the team that the Bengals as well as the rest of the division are focusing on is Bishop Gorman which started off 5-1-0 in league and 5-3-0 overall after posting a 10-8-2 mark last season.

The Gaels, who were eliminated in the 2003-04 Sunset semis by Bonanza (3-1), and coach Victor Arbelaez return eight starters, the most talented being All-Sunset midfielders Kelly Gaughan and Whitney Hawkins. Also back for Gorman are seniors Elycia Moreno and Krystal Jackson and sophomores Jane Carlson, Sami Cashman and Tiffany Bombard, who is the sister of Bonanza's star soccer player T.J. Bombard.

Also helping the Gaels try to garner another postseason spot this time around are goalkeeper Alle Zaher, Kelly Gaughan, Cassie Romeo, Katie White, Katie Fine, Alex Barilla, Katie Avena, Nicole Billow and Meghan Hernandez, who scored all six Gorman goals in a 6-0 shutout over Clark on Jan. 5.

The Gaels only conference loss to start the season was a 3-0 shutout at the hands of league rival and Southern Nevada champion Bonanza on Dec. 16.

Posing a surprising challenge to Bonanza and Gorman in the Southwest to start the season is Spring Valley, a school that just opened its doors last fall. The Grizzlies, coached by Bill Hamilton, started the season 7-1-3 overall and 4-1-1 in the Southwest division.

Spring Valley's standouts include goalkeeper Sarah Blank, Brooke Paulson, Cheryl Martin, Holly Martin, Olivia Nazihi, Brittany Boyack, Nicole Noorda, Danielle Sullivan and Brittany Hofer, who had both goals in the Grizzlies' 2-0 upset of Bonanza earlier in the season.

In other early significant matches against league foes, Spring Valley tied Sierra Vista (1-1) and was shut out by Gorman (5-0). With its great start, a playoff berth can be expected by Hamilton and his troops, many of whom played for Kearney at Bonanza last year.

"My JV team last year is like their varsity team," Kearney said. "They have like four or five of our JV girls that are playing on their varsity team this year."

Sierra Vista (4-9-2 last year) and coach Dusky Deskins started this season strong, going 5-2-2 and 3-1-2 in the league and return 10 starters, including All-Southwest selections and sophomores Amber Lyons, Tara Magdos and Krista Oliver. The Mountain Lions should snag the last playoff spot in the Sunset Southwest after their solid start.

Clark (5-10 last year) is coached by Nacho Luevano and returns six starters including seniors Aurora Alba and Ashley Straight and junior Heather Thompson. The Chargers, who have five freshmen on their squad, started the year 3-4-0 overall and 2-4 in the Southwest. If Clark is to make the playoffs, it will probably need Sierra Vista to slip in the standings.

At Durango, coach Barry Forget and the Trailblazers were affected by zoning and the opening of Spring Valley and had trouble fielding a team as they forfeited their first three games because of a lack of players. Last season Durango went 8-5-1 and finished second in the league.

This season Durango started 1-8-0 and 1-5-0 --- its only win coming Dec. 8 at Western --- and will be hard-pressed to recover from that start. Four-year starter Zuhal Ahmady and Traci Bechdol actually helped try to recruit players for the team, which has a storied tradition, going 100-63-25 in its first 11 seasons.

Senior midfielder Jennifer Badgeley returns with seven other starters to a Western squad that went 1-13 last season. Coach Jim Sullivan and the Warriors started this season off 0-8-0 overall and 0-6-0 in the Southwest and will look to try and build for the future.

Bonanza's Kearney, who is also the school's boys coach, broke down the division race as well as who he thought the team to beat at state would be.

"It's going to be us and Gorman again in our division," Kearney said. "But for us, Palo Verde's going to be the team to beat again."