Soccer: Rogers High Sweeps Heritage

ROGERS -- Rogers High girls soccer coach Taylor Vaccaro was already thinking about penalty kicks in the second half of Tuesday's tight match against crosstown rival Rogers Heritage.

Maisy Louree made her forget those thoughts quickly.

The junior midfielder scored with 23 minutes, 16 seconds left in the second half to give the Lady Mounties a 1-0 7A-West Conference victory in Gates Stadium.

Rogers (7-5, 4-3 7A-West) took advantage of the ball bouncing free in front of the goal after a corner kick for the lone score of the match. Vaccaro said her team didn't give up on the play and was solid from the beginning.

"I was proud of how my girls came out ready to play because there are some games where I'm not sure what team will show up," Vaccaro said. "I keep telling them not to give up on corners, not to give up on shots, always follow them and they did that.

"Heritage is a great team. It's always a battle with them, our crosstown rival. Last year we went into PKs. Fortunately, we snuck that one goal in."

Heritage (6-5, 3-4) had a couple of good chances to tie the match only a few minutes later. One went just wide, another high, but Rogers keeper Abigail Beasley came up with the save off an Emily Seiler shot in front of the goal.

Beasley is actually the backup keeper and is playing with starter Kiara Henry sidelined with an injury, but she's came up big on several occasions, even before tonight, Vaccaro said.

"She got a shutout tonight, saved the game for us on a few plays," Vaccaro said. "We are missing two key players, but we had players step up."

Lady War Eagles coach Craig Frank said Rogers made the most of its chance.

"It's always a tough match, we've beaten them by one in the past," Frank said. "They've beaten us by one. We didn't take advantage of the opportunities they gave us. They converted on one shot. That was the difference in the game."

Boys

Rogers High 4, Rogers Heritage 0

Sophomore Horacio Olivera broke a scoreless tie midway through the first half and the Mounties piled on three more in the second half for the shutout victory.

The Mounties (7-2, 5-2 7A-West) grabbed the momentum early in the second half when sophomore Alex Balderas caught Heritage (3-9-2, 1-6) napping on a free kick and punched it in from about 15 yards out.

Rogers coach Steve Peck said his team bounced back strong from back-to-back losses.

"I thought we played with some heart tonight," Peck said. "We played the way we want to play possession ball, kick the ball around and I thought we did a very good job with it."

Sports on 04/15/2015

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