Highland topples Gilbert for 2nd time in girls soccer

January 10, 2012 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


The Gilbert-Highland rivalry in girls soccer isn't normally a high-scoring matchup.

The 2011-2012 chapter of the rivalr, however, has been an anomaly, according to Gilbert High coach Ben Holzer.

"Usually it's a low-scoring, one-goal game," Holzer said.

Not this year.  For the second in three weeks on Tuesday night, Highland came away a winner by  dealing a second loss to Gilbert in power-point action by the same score as the first meeting -- 4-2 -- this time at Highland High.

"We're offensive minded," Highland coach John Berzins said. "I think we have 70 goals now in 15 games. We came out firing and connected on the early chances we got. We had some long ones."

Four players scored for Highland (13-1-2 overall and 6-1 in power-point matches). That's not unusual for Highland this year as Berzins said he has four players at or close to double figures in goals.

Highland scoered three of its goals in the first half. Ashley Hatch took a feed from Bre McCarter in the 6th minute and had a one-on-one opportunity with Gilbert keeper Jeni Phoenix that Hatch won.

Ten minutes later, Jaden DeGracie bombed one home from about 28 yards out to make it 2-0. The third goal -- scored by Brena Jarvis -- came on some nifty touch-passing inside of 10 yards with Jarvis doing the honors after the final pass from Ashley Hatch.

"We made three mistakes on those and they made us pay every time," Holzer said. "If you play them, you better be able to score because they sure can."

Gilbert (11-5 overall, 5-2 ppg) was able to go to intermission down 3-1, getting a penalty kick  in the final second of the half by Melanie Hood after Highland was called for a foul in the box.

The momentum from that goal didn't carry over long, as Highland tallied again in the 44th minute on another long-range goal -- at least 25 yards -- by freshman Briann Hatch  that pushed the lead back to three goals.

To its credit, Gilbert pulled within 4-2 in the 55th minute after a nice cross from Tawsi Rohner to Kalyn Goodenough. Gilbert put a lot of pressure on at Highland's end over  the final 20 minutes, but couldn't muster the goals to tie.