Cheyenne East sophomore Brooklyn Paskett (12) and Scottsbluff, Neb. junior Claire Powell (18) fight for possession during a soccer game at Okie Blanchard Stadium in Cheyenne on Saturday, March 18, 2023.
Cheyenne East sophomore Brooklyn Paskett (12) and Scottsbluff, Neb. junior Claire Powell (18) fight for possession during a soccer game at Okie Blanchard Stadium in Cheyenne on Saturday, March 18, 2023.
CHEYENNE – The Cheyenne East girls set out to be more aggressive on offense this season.
They are well on their way to accomplishing that goal, if their first two matches are any indication.
One day after winning their first match by double digits, the Lady Thunderbirds beat visiting Scottsbluff, Nebraska, 4-1 on Saturday afternoon at Okie Blanchard Stadium.
“We are doing a really good job of using what we’ve been practicing,” East coach Rebecca Valdez said. “We’re trying to be more aggressive when we have the ball this year, and the girls have done a really good job of that so far.”
East opened the season with a 10-0 win at Gering, Nebraska, on Friday night. That match was stopped in the 58th minute due to Nebraska’s 10-goal mercy rule.
Sophomore Brooklyn Paskett gave East (2-0) the lead when she scored in the second minute off an assist from junior Jordan Griess. The T-Birds took a 2-0 lead into the halftime locker room after Zoey Woods ran onto a pass from Adelynne Schilling, took a couple of dribbles and hit a shot to the left of Scottsbluff goalkeeper Jessica Schaff in the 18th.
Junior Haley Pearson got in on the action in the 59th minute when she sent a Paskett pass past Schaff.
“We were pressuring really well,” Pearson said. “We had to go against the wind in the first half, and we were worried about that. We did a good job of staying up on them, pressuring them and making sure they couldn’t use the wind to their advantage.”
The Bearcats got onto the scoreboard in the 67th when Ella Foote ran onto the rebound of a direct kick and scored past goalkeeper junior Aryana Booth to trim East’s lead to 3-1.
Sophomore Rylie Vasquez put the T-Birds back up three goals when she scored on a breakaway in the 76th.
East took 24 shots, putting 16 of them on goal. It limited the Bearcats to just seven shots (four on goal).
“We’re using our defense to push up in the attack, and our outside backs helped us score two goals in this game,” Pearson said. “They got the ball and pushed it up, and that really helped us get on the attack.”
