WINNEMUCCA - Even though the results on the scoreboard do not show it, Lowry High School varsity girls soccer coach Chris Entwistle is pleased with his young squad in the early part of the Division I-A North schedule.
The Lady Bucks (1-3 Division I-A North, 4-3-1 overall) have started out with one of the toughest stretch of games to begin league play.
Lowry opened with Truckee on the road and was back at home last weekend for a pair of matches with Sparks and South Tahoe. The Lady Bucks defeated the Railroaders 3-1 on Friday, Sept. 13, but lost 4-0 to South Tahoe on Saturday.
In the victory over Sparks, Lowry junior Monique Rodriguez finished with a hat trick, scoring all three goals for the Lady Bucks. After watching Sparks miss a penalty kick early in the first half, Rodriguez scored the lone goal in the first 40 minutes of play off a breakaway opportunity after receiving a pass from Cindy Bravo.
Sparks tied the game on a shot by Melissa Lopez from about 25 yards out in the early portion of the second half, but it was all Lowry from there.
"We played very well," said LHS head coach Chris Entwistle. "We caught a break when Sparks missed the penalty. For the most part we dominated the game. The only shot on goal Sparks had they scored on."
Rodriguez added the game-winning goal 10 minutes later and capped off her hat trick with a penalty kick late in the second half.
"It was a good performance and well played game," added the coach. "It's those kinds of games that we have to win."
Lowry played South Tahoe tough for the first 40 minutes on Saturday afternoon, with the Vikings leading 1-0 at halftime. However, behind three goals from Jenny Burks, South Tahoe pulled away for the 4-0 victory.
"We came out expecting a tough, physical team," Entwistle said. "They beat Truckee, who beat us 7-0. We changed some things up and our philosophy was to weather the storm for the first 10 minutes and get South Tahoe frustrated. We were hoping they would make a mistake."
Megan Lombardi had a strong match in the net, with 11 saves for Lowry, according to the coach.
"She played phenomenal," said the coach. "She absolutely stepped up for us. She had some big shoes to fill and she turned the corner this past weekend. To play hard as we did against a quality program is a step in the right direction for us."
The Lady Bucks were back on the road Tuesday to play Churchill County in Fallon. The Greenwave came into the match undefeated in league with victories over Elko and Spring Creek.
"Churchill County has set themselves up as that third or fourth-place team in the league," said the coach. "It was good to see how we stacked up against them. I was pleased with our performance and we showed some teams that we are not going to be pushovers."
Lowry held Churchill County scoreless until the second half, when the Greenwave scored the lone goal, a minute into the second half and escaped with the 1-0 win.
The Lady Bucks travel to Fernley on Monday for a 3 p.m. match with the Vaqueros.
"We have had one of the toughest schedules to start and now we are at the point to where we have to start getting wins," Entwistle said. "I think it has been a good start and of course we would like more wins, but we've got to get down to business now."
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