Pusch Ridge beat River Valley 4-0 Thursday night to advance to the 3A state tournament slated to start next Wednesday, Feb. 6 at 6 p.m. The AIA Soccer Bracket Show is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 8 at 2:30 p.m., but the Lions are expecting to a rematch with Anthem Prep (10-2-1) in the first round.

Pusch Ridge (8-4-1) played Anthem Prep to a 1-1 tie at home on Jan. 11 and that tie sparked a 4-2 run down the stretch to stay in playoff contention as a 12-seed in the conference play-in tournament. River Valley (3-7-1), on the other hand, struggled down the stretch with four straight losses before beating Kingman 4-3 on Tuesday night to preserve a No. 21 seed.

Paige McCrindle hit McKinley Severson to put the Lions up 1-0 and then Iliana Mars scored twice to give Pusch Ridge a 3-0 lead at the half with McCrindle assisting on her second goal. Jane Mauer passed across the net and Kalle Osier put it away for the 4-0 final.

Pusch Ridge standout Iliana Mars with two goals today against River Valley #AZPreps365 pic.twitter.com/Qfh48Da1pj

— Andy Morales (@AZPreps365Andy) February 1, 2019

Severson and Mars are seniors but McCrindle is a sophomore and Osier is only freshman. The future looks bright for the Lions but it might shine brighter for the Dust Devils thanks in part to sophomore Hailie Pagett and freshman Brisa Muniz. The underclassmen combined for over half the team goals this year and there are a few juniors in the mix as well.

“I’m excited for next year because of our freshmen and some of our best players are our juniors,” Pagett said. “I got pulled up to forward this year and I struggled a little bit early on.”

Pagett missed a week of competition due to the death of her father on Jan. 7 and the Mohave Valley community has come together around her family. Richard Pagett is survived by his wife and four children and there is a GoFundMe page set up for the family.

This will be the first state appearance for Pusch Ridge since the team made it to the Division IV semifinals in 2016.