Lady Wolves Soccer team fights for wins

The Lady Wolves fought hard to pull off challenging back-to-back wins on the road last weekend. 

The Green River High School Girls Soccer team traveled to face off against both Lyman and Mountain View. While the team struggled with mistakes, injuries, and difficulty doing their best, they pulled off game-winning goals once it got down to the wire. 

"We didn't play particularly well in either game," Head Coach Matthew Robles admitted. Still, he added, "A win's a win, no matter how ugly it is, so we take those wins." 

The competition started in Lyman on Friday, where the Lady Wolves had to play on a grass football field, which is different than they're used to, particularly since it's narrower than a soccer field. 

"With our formation and our abilities, it's hard for us," Robles explained. "We enjoy more space and more width. So it took the girls a minute to get used to that." 

Green River gave up the first goal of the game, but pushed to get back ahead until they were up 5-3. Unfortunately, they lost both their goalie and one of their starting center backs to injuries, which changed the momentum and made things difficult until the very end. 

"Isa Vasco just does what Isa does," Coach Robles said. "She got the ball and took over and ended up scoring the game-winning goal late."

Isabel Vasco ultimately scored all six of Green River's goals against Lyman, and the Lady Wolves came away with a close 6-5 victory. 

The next day, the Lady Wolves found themselves on another grass field to play Mountain View. 

"It was a very back and forth game," Robles explained. 

The teams ended up tied 2-2 at halftime, and continued the exchange of goals without much solid defense throughout the second half of the game. The score was tied 6-6 with only a few minutes left in the game when Green River pulled off another last-minute goal to come away with the 7-6 win. 

Once again, Vasco led the team, scoring six of the points in the game, with Brynlee Cordova scoring the other goal. 

Robles pointed out that, after setting a record by scoring 38 goals in her freshman season last year, Vasco has already scored over 30 goals this season. 

"It looks like she's going to shatter the single-season record this year again," Robles said of Vasco. "She's a very special talent."

The other center midfield players are also strong and important to the team, both in helping them reach success and helping propel the team forward when they need to fix things, according to Robles. 

Despite the strength of players like Vasco and Cordova, the team struggled as a whole this past weekend. But the coach noted that the trip to play Lyman and Mountain View is always hard, and was also difficult for the team last year, when they came away with only a win against Lyman.

"We were able to do what we couldn't do last year and pulled out the win in Mountain View, and it puts us in a good place," Robles said. 

While the Lady Wolves are currently fourth going into the second half of the conference season, they're one game ahead of where they were at this time last year, and the next few games will give them a chance to move even further ahead. 

"If we take care of business this weekend it pretty much solidifies us qualifying for State," Coach Robles explained. 

This weekend the Lady Wolves will once again face off against both Lyman and Mountain View, only this time they'll be on their home turf. They'll also face Lander again at home the following Tuesday, playing three games in five days. 

"We're just in that final push to make sure we're staying focused on what our end goals are and making sure we're still playing clean, well-developed soccer," Robles said of the busy schedule as the conference season starts to wrap up. 

While the Lady Wolves have struggled with putting together a solid game the last few weeks, according to Robles, he believes playing at home will help them out, and he hopes they will be able to stay focused and keep working on their skills and controlling what they can as they work towards their ultimate goal. 

"We all expect to make State, and that's been our expectation since day one," Robles said. "We're kind of knocking on the door right now, and we just need to walk through it."