WINNEMUCCA - After handing Spring Creek it first league loss of the season on Oct. 16, the Lowry High School boys soccer team had nine days off before hitting the road to end the regular season with matches against a pair of Division III schools last week.
The Buckaroos (11-8-1 overall, 4-6 Division I-A, 8-2 Ruby Mountain) had little trouble with White Pine on Thursday, Oct. 25, and West Wendover on Friday, Oct. 26, winning 4-0 and 7-0, respectively.
Lowry finished the regular season by winning six of its last seven matches and placed second in the Ruby Mountain League. The only loss in that stretch was to Elko on Oct. 13.
"We went out and took care of business," said LHS head coach Steve Swanson. "The guys played surprisingly good. It could have been easy to go to White Pine and play a match in miserable conditions that didn't count and play down to them. That didn't happen and it was the same for the West Wendover match."
In the matchup with White Pine, Carlos Aguilar recorded a hat trick, his second such feat against the Bobcats this year. Aguilar scored the first, third and fourth goals, while Luis Hernandez scored the second goal of the match for the Buckaroos.
"The first priority was not to get anybody hurt," Swanson said. "The reserves came off the bench and got a lot of playing time and they played well."
It was much of the same against West Wendover in the regular season finale as Aguilar provided three more goals for the Buckaroos. The junior finished with 29 goals on the season, which is a new school record.
"Carlos has been a scoring machine for us all year," said the coach. "He doesn't miss on very many opportunities. The good thing is, he is a junior and is back next year."
Aguilar scored the first goal of the day for the Buckaroos, which was followed by a goal by Alex Roark. Aguilar added the third and fourth goals, putting Lowry up 4-0.
Hayden Jeppsen followed with his first goal of the season, giving the Buckaroos a 5-0 advantage and Hernandez and Sergio Castaneda finished out the scoring.
"Everyone on the team except for three guys scored this year," Swanson said. "I have 14 different goal scorers, which is nice to have. We played well against West Wendover and did the little things well."
Lowry entered the Division I-A Northern Regional Championships as the No. 6 seed and traveled to South Tahoe on Wednesday. The Buckaroos' season came to an end with a 4-2 loss to the Vikings.
The match was tied at 2-2 late in the second half, when South Tahoe scored the final two goals to secure the victory.
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