Carolanna Feltner is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Desert Vista High School for AZPreps365.com

PHOENIX-- The Desert Vista Thunder beat the Basha Bears 2-1 in round one of the 6A state girls soccer playoffs on Saturday. The home win advances the Thunder into the quarterfinals round. 

While the game was full of frustration from both sides, Desert Vista's tantalizing teamwork gave them the leg up on Basha.  

"Towards the end we kind of got in their heads a little bit," captain Isabel Valdez said. "So it was like they just started barking at each other and then they got in each other's head. It kind of just was their downfall, their lack of teamwork." 

The Bears played a very aggressive game but the Thunder adapted to outplay them skillfully. 

"I think in the beginning of the game their forwards got together and wanted to target our center back, number 23 Kiki Smith," Valdez said,  "And we let the ref know and he did not do much about it so we just had to kind of deal with it. All it really was, was just getting the ball off our foot a little bit quicker to avoid something like that and yeah I would say it worked. I don't think they got hurt all that bad."

Throughout the first half Vista was controlling the midfield but was losing the ball due to Basha rocketing the ball into the Thunder zone. Vista goalkeeper Paola Perez was holding it down in net with multiple saves until the Bears scored with seven minutes left in the half.

This reminded Desert Vista (10-1) that getting further in playoffs is a one and done situation and for the last portion of the first half they kept the ball in the Basha zone. 

"We kind of started slow but then we figured it out," captain Ariana Ahumada said, "Once we started playing our game we kind of got back together and came back and won." 

The second half proves they did reconvene, with Madilyn Makay scoring three minutes in to tie the game. The Thunder then dominated the midfield and Basha zone leading to a few missed shots on net. Desire Tablado pushed Desert Vista up by one needed goal with Sarah McCarthy on the assist with only five minutes left on the clock, securing the team's win.

            Desert Vista changing the line up after scoring their first goal (Carolanna Feltner/AZPreps365)

Unlike Desert Vista's final regular season game against Desert Ridge, where players were wearing parkas and the temperature was in the 40s, this game was a scorcher with the temp being in the mid-80s.

The heat and sun was taking a toll on the Thunder and on a few occasions the players on the bench had to put water bottles on the line for their teammates to run and grab.

A concerning incident, spurred on by the weather, occurred during the second half when Desert Vista senior Sarah McCarthy collided with a Basha (4-6-1) player and wasn't getting up.

"We kind of had a 50/50 ball, she ran at me, bumped my knee, knee kind of went backwards, and I felt the little bruise on my knee," McCarthy said, "Also I was really tired so I needed to take that time to like regroup myself and make sure it wasn't injured or anything." 

After about five minutes with the athletic trainer, McCarthy started to sit up while her teammates ran and grabbed a water bottle from the sideline for her.

"Ha ha, but yeah I was good," she said.

McCarthy sat on the bench for a little bit before she continued to play the rest of the half with athletic tape wrapped around her knee.

Desert Vista's quarterfinal game is at home against Red Mountain on Wednesday at 6 p.m.