After sewing up another solid regular season of work last Friday night with a 10-0 shutout of Ignacio underneath the Wolverine Country Stadium lights, the Bayfield seniors began calling out "Mama Duck! Mama Duck!" while missing one key person in their Senior Day group photo.
"We call her 'Mama Duck,'" senior Briana Martinez said of Head Coach Jen Zelinski. "And I guess it's because we just all follow her around like little ducklings!"
Nesting and resting at home Sunday afternoon, "Mama Duck" learned that her brood had given her a pretty fine Mother's Day present: Inclusion into the 2016 Class 3A state girls' soccer tournament.
Despite finishing 13-2-2 overall-counting two non-league wins over Crested Butte Community School-and 9-1-2 in the 3A/2A Southwestern League, the Wolverines were given a difficult draw as the #23 seed in the 24-team bracket. The Wolverines will face 10-seed Lafayette Peak to Peak (9-5-1, 5-4-0 Metro) Friday at Fountain Valley High School in Colorado Springs.
Seeded seventh overall and awarded a first-round bye, Fountain Valley (11-2-0, 4-0-0 Tri-Peaks-East) will then face the winner tomorrow in the Sweet 16.
Also representing the SWL in the postseason, Pagosa Springs (10-4-1, 10-2-0) received the #22 and will play 11-seed Parker Lutheran (9-4-1, 4-4-1 Metro), with the winner meeting 6-seed New Castle Coal Ridge (11-2-0, 10-0-0 Western Slope) tomorrow in the second round.
Hoping for the best when CHSAA's 'Selection Sunday' came around, BHS made sure to do their best before a raucous WCS crowd with Pine River Valley neighbors IHS in town, and wasted little time getting started.
Sophomore Savannah Kaufmann commenced the scoring with a second-minute strike against Bobcat senior Selena Cook, filling in as goalie to allow freshman regular Lanie Webb a chance to play in the field.
Finishing off a bang-bang sequence of passes from senior Maddy Duran and sophomore Sophie Turner, Kaufmann struck again in the ninth for a 2-0 lead, and saw members of the Bayfield baseball team launch their lids towards the bench area when she completed her hat trick in the 17th.
By that point, sophomore Misty Helton had cashed in an assist from junior Lenka Doskocil in the 11th, Duran had scored in the 12th and senior Bryannah Isiordia finished a perfect corner-kick service from junior Makenna Cowan in the 14th. Duran would drill a header-off another perfect Cowan corner-past Cook in the 18th for a devastating 7-0 advantage, and Webb was summoned to spell Cook (who did make four saves).
Martinez then scored in the 22nd for an eight-goal lead which held into halftime, and about the only strategy Zelinski had to employ was to decide when to move junior goalie Kailee Millard into the field-which happened in the 34th minute. That gave developing protégé Taelor Higgins some more work orchestrating the Bayfield defense.
Millard, who hadn't seen any action come her way during the first half, would fittingly team with Isiordia to thwart Ignacio's best scoring chance in the contest, cutting short a promising run up the near sideline by junior Tori Archuleta and sophomore Namichen Oberly in the 52nd.
Senior Lexa Fleming finally got her first varsity goal by zipping a 73rd-minute penalty kick past Webb (four saves), upping the home side's lead to 9-0. Martinez brought the match to an end with a score in the 75th.
BHS gained six corners to IHS' none, and neither Millard nor Higgins faced an enemy shot.
Defeated 9-0 the previous evening by Center on Senior Day at IHS Field, the match in Bayfield was the last ever for Bobcat seniors Cook, Bekah Powell, Cortney Wilson-Baker and the injured Gibran Silva. It was also the last home match for Wolverines Duran, Isiordia, Fleming, Martinez, Alyssa Knapp and Sydney Milner.
