Cottonwood girls soccer smarting from three straight losses to open region play

They say good news and bad news usually comes in threes. For the Cottonwood Colts girls soccer team, never could that be closer to the truth. 

After trotting out three straight wins to open the preseason, it was matched by two losses and an agonizing draw in which the Colts led with minutes to spare. 

That 5-5 draw at Highland on Aug. 18 may not have seemed like much. But, in the next match on Aug. 22 at Murray the Colts surrendered five goals in the opening half en route to a 9-1 loss. 

A relatively easy 9-0 win at Cyprus Aug. 26 followed for the Colts, who used mostly underclassmen in the blowout victory. Nine different players tallied goals in the win. 

With a 3-2-1 record to wrap up the preseason, Cottonwood then headed into region play, in a new classification filled with teams the Colts have rarely played. 

Awaiting Cottonwood would be powerhouse teams of Brighton and Alta, Timpview and Corner Canyon as well as Jordan, a team head coach Dominic Militello is infinitely familiar with. So far, the Colts haven’t found the win column in region play against such formidable foes. 

“It’s been tough. But, I’m very proud of the effort our girls are demonstrating,” said Militello of his team’s maiden voyage through troubled waters. 

The first such encounter took place at home against Corner Canyon. In the game on Aug. 29, the Colts couldn’t get their offense untracked, and so the visiting Chargers took a 3-0 halftime lead, increasing it to a final score of 7-0 in favor of Corner Canyon. 

But, something happened after the Corner Canyon game, according to Militello—the fight and grot to which he referred. In the next game at Timpview on Aug. 31, the Colts scored first on a goal from Nixie Hernandez. 

But the T-Birds knotted the game up at 1-1 in the second half to send the game into overtime. And, in the extra time period, Timpview scored yet again, sending the Colts to their second consecutive region loss in as many games. 

Before this newspaper went to print the Colts girls played one more region game on Sept. 7 against Jordan, a familiar foe. 

But in this showdown between two teams that know each other all too well, it was the host Beetdiggers who sent Cottonwood smarting from yet another region loss. Jordan scored two goals apiece on each half on the way to sending Cottonwood home with a 4-0 loss. 

The loss dropped Cottonwood to 0-3 in region play and 3-5-1 on the year overall. For the Colts, Jaylie Montoya leads the team in scoring with six goals, while Nixie Hernandez follows with four. Three other girls share the scoring wealth with three goals apiece. 

After press time the Colts will head home for a pair of matches against Brighton and Alta the week of Sept. 11 and continue region play through September.