WINNEMUCCA - After a rocky 2011 season, the Lowry High School varsity boys soccer team began this fall on a high note, with a win, loss and tie at the Fallon crossover tournament last weekend.
The Buckaroos (1-1-1) defeated Dayton 5-2 on Friday, Aug. 31, and played to a 0-0 tie against host Churchill County on Saturday. In the final game of the tournament, Lowry lost 5-0 to South Tahoe.
"Other than about 10 minutes against Dayton and another 15 against South Tahoe, we played pretty good," said LHS head coach Steve Swanson. "We didn't get a very good warm up before the South Tahoe match because we had played a game earlier and didn't think we needed it."
Lowry scored three goals in the first 15 minutes of the match in the win over Dayton, including one by Carlos Aguilar in the fourth minute. The Buckaroos' Luis Hernandez picked up a hat trick, including two goals in the first half of play. Giovanni Hernandez added the Buckaroos' fifth goal in the second half.
"It was a match that we pretty much dominated," Swanson said. "It was good for us since that was our first game and Dayton had three matches under their belt the week before in Spring Creek. We were working out some issues. We played the entire weekend with three defenders, which gave us a lot of attack but we made our defense work their butt off. I will probably switch some things up and go with four defenders when we play Truckee and Sparks this weekend."
Swanson praised the play of his three defenders in Thomas Knowlton, Kevin Blanco and Alex Roark.
Lowry has had tough luck with Churchill County in the past, but played the host Greenwave tough in its first of two games on Saturday.
"It was not like it was a fluke and we got lucky and tied them," Swanson said. "It was a hard-fought game by both teams. I wouldn't say we dominated them but they did not dominate us. It was back-and-forth. We gave as good as we got and had chances to score. If we played like we did against Dayton, I think we win the match against Fallon."
Lowry had a chance to score in the first half on a bicycle kick by Aguilar but it was stopped by the Churchill County goalie.
"I don't know he stopped it but the save was actually better than the shot," added the coach. "Fallon is definitely a team that we can play with and beat this year."
The Buckaroos had two other opportunities at scoring in the second half, but could not find the net.
In the loss to South Tahoe, the Vikings scored three times in the first 20 minutes of the match and led 4-0 at halftime. South Tahoe scored once in the second half and that was on a own goal by Lowry.
"We played South Tahoe more than even in the second half," Swanson said. "They probably had 15 guys on the bench and were just subbing groups of guys in and staying fresh. Fatigue was an issue for us against South Tahoe. The thing that made me the happiest is the way we came back and played against them. The team was down but the kids' heads never went down."
Lowry will play through its toughest part of the schedule this season, when it travels to Truckee for Mount Rose crossover matches. The Buckaroos play Sparks, the defending state champions, ay 11 a.m. today, and Truckee, the 2011 state runner-up, at 5 p.m. Lowry faces South Tahoe on Saturday at 11 a.m.
"I have never had a team playing at this level at this time of the year," Swanson said. "I would put this group of guys against any team I have coached. This weekend will be a big challenge for us. We are playing the top three teams in the north. If we can pull out one win, it was gives us a great confidence boost."
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