Vail Mountain School girls soccer advances past Alameda in 3A state tournament with 10-1 victory

Lucy Perkins has a lot of fond memories on the Vail Mountain School pitch. The Ranger senior made her final game count on Wednesday night in Vail, scoring four first-half goals as No. 13 VMS advanced past No. 20 Alameda with a 10-1 win in the first round of the 3A girls state soccer tournament.

“We brought that up, like, ‘dang this is our last game on this field.’ It’s just so special to be out here and be on home turf,” Perkins said. “It’s memories I have since I was a little freshman and before I even came to VMS. So it’s just super special to be able to play out here and obviously have a win and a pretty successful season so far.”

Perkins got the party started six minutes in and scored her second goal on a nice finish a few minutes later. In the 12th minute, Solveig Moritz fired a shot from just outside the 18 which deflected off the Pirates’ keeper, Alexa Andrade, to the other side of the box. A waiting Perkins booted it back at the net, but Andrade stretched her left arm out for a valiant second save. The Ranger senior, however, would not be denied, recording a hat trick on her third strike at the net.

“The soccer prowess is definitely there, but so much more than that is her leadership by example,” Vail Mountain coach Bob Bandoni said of Perkins, who plans to play soccer next fall at Denison University in Granville, Ohio. “She’s inclusive, she brings a really positive tenor to the whole program. …As she has developed herself, so has she brought the group along with her.”

Bandoni instituted a middle-block defensive scheme that put the Pirates on their heels. The veteran coach said the idea was to integrate the defensive system into the attacking one.

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“So, the transitions are fast,” he explained. “When we win the ball, we’re ready to go instead of being all spread over the field.”

“It’s worked really well,” Perkins added. “They just end up kind of playing straight to our feet.”

Shay Armistead poked in a rebound off a corner-kick scrum with 13:39 left in the half and Perkins scored again with 3:30 to go as Vail Mountain went into the break with a commanding 6-0 advantage. The Rangers’ dominance continued as Maya Maxon scored a pair of early second half goals before Alameda finally got on the board midway through. Later, Isla Elton launched a beautiful cross to Armistead, who finished for her second goal with 11:07 remaining and Lejla Bambur left a good taste in her team’s mouth with a goal in the closing minutes to cap off the 10-1 victory. Vail Mountain, which often has to wait until the conclusion of the alpine ski season to fill out its full roster, hasn’t lost since April 15.

“A lot of our seniors and juniors are skiers, so their seasons are a lot longer now,” said Perkins. “But I think the past couple weeks we’ve really grown as a team. We feel a lot closer and like best friends out there.”

Bandoni said he’s been impressed with how quickly his players have caught on to concepts.

“It’s asking a lot more of the players to absorb and assimilate that, to gel that quickly when we’re literally doing in the postseason what we should be doing in the preseason,” he said. “The idea of one mindedness — they are working unified by a few basic principles, and it takes a lot of discipline to do that.”

Vail Mountain School will travel to Broomfield on Saturday to face No. 4 Prospect Ridge Academy. The Miners defeated the Rangers 4-0 in the playoffs last year and bring back Madison Skinner and Sierra Bennett, who each scored two goals in that game. Skinner has 18 goals and 13 assists this season. Perkins said her team will have to be sharper in a few areas in order to stay with their second-round opponent.

“Sometimes we end up playing to their level and we want to make sure we keep playing to our level and our standard,” the senior stated. 

“They’re going to be strong,” Bandoni added. “We’re going to have to be at our best.”