Horizon girls stay alive with rout of St. Mary's

January 26, 2005

The Horizon girls soccer team isn’t used to having its back against the wall.

After winning three of the last four 5A state championships, Horizon faced a desperate situation during its Desert Valley Region quarterfinal game against visiting St. Mary’s Tuesday — defeat the Knights, or the team wouldn’t even qualify for the state tournament to defend its title. But the Huskies responded in rabid fashion, as they trounced St. Mary’s 7-0.

Horizon scored all seven goals in the first half, and prevented the Knights from taking a shot the entire game. Husky goalkeeper Karlyn Swensen didn’t even touch the ball until 20 minutes remained in the game as she picked it up after an errant pass. With the win, the team is guaranteed one of four spots from the region in the state tournament. The Huskies now will take on No. 2 Xavier today at Phoenix College.

The lopsided win was particularly satisfying for a Horizon team that had been decimated by injuries throughout the year. Tuesday marked the first time this season coach Chris Sydney had all the team’s starters at his disposal, as eight players missed games this season for a variety of reasons.

“Winning games this year has been more rewarding,” Horizon midfielder Lauren Butters said. “Last year it was just a cakewalk and it was ridiculous. We never will know what could have been if we had been healthy this year, but I think it made us tougher as a team to go through all those trials.

“It was good to win tonight by such a big number because it will give us confidence going in against Xavier tomorrow.”

The last time Horizon played St. Mary’s in mid-December, the Huskies were without six players and narrowly won, 1-0, in overtime.

“The big thing I can attribute tonight’s performance to is that when you have everyone healthy, the team spirit is a lot better,” Sydney said. “I think the girls fed off that, and it showed in the score.”

Though St. Mary’s seemed overmatched on the field, the Knights never pulled their punches, literally. With just less than nine minutes remaining in the first half and Horizon winning 4-0, the spirited match lost control momentarily when St. Mary’s goalie Laura McShane and Horizon leading scorer Alex Ciliento were ejected following an altercation.

Both Ciliento and McShane darted for a loose ball, which Ciliento appeared to reach first as she tapped it past McShane for Horizon’s fifth goal. The two collided on the play and subsequently exchanged words before McShane threw a series of haymakers at her opponent.

Ciliento elected not to swing back, but the official gave her a yellow card anyway, her second of the game, and the accompanying one-game suspension. The call incensed the Huskies’ bench and fans.