| Gering girls' week on road opens with win | |
| April 13, 2012 Terry Gaston | |
 Bulldog senior Dani Copsey winds up for a kick amid a threat from Bearcat opponent junior Luana DeMelo last weekend at the GNAC tournament in North Platte. The Lady Bulldogs defeated the Lady Bearcats by a score of 7-0 in the consolation bracket. The Gering girls’ soccer team had two big road trips last week, starting with a single game Tuesday in Lexington against Norfolk Lutheran High Northeast and bringing home a confidence-building, 8-1 victory. That win, the Bulldogs’ fifth straight, preceded their participation in the Greater Nebraska Athletic Conference Tournament in Norfolk on Friday and Saturday. When Gering took on Lutheran Northeast to begin the week, the Bulldogs continued a roll in which they had outscored their opponents 34-4 in that game and the previous four matches. Five different players scored for the Bulldogs in the contest. Josie Thompson paced Gering with a hat trick, with her three goals coming in a streak that consumed just 17 minutes overlapping the first and second halves. Dani Copsey also hit the opposing net multiple times with a pair of goals. Jackie Hayden, Shayla Garetto and Kaylee Spreier punched in the Bulldogs’ other scores. Garetto and Cassidy Cooper made assists. The high-scoring output came as part of a 26-7 advantage in shots. Gering goalkeepers Maggie Martin and Megan Upp pulled in two saves apiece. Lutheran Northeast broke its scoreless drought in the 75th minute. The Bulldogs’ five-game and hit-scoring streaks were ended in a 2-0 loss to Class A North Platte on Friday in opening-round play of the GNAC Tournament. Martin tallied 11 saves in playing goal the entire match. The loss put Gering into the consolation bracket, where the Bulldogs rediscovered their winning and scoring ways on Saturday. GHS first routed Scottsbluff 7-0 and then claimed fifth place in the tourney with a 1-0 win over Kearney. Gering (8-4 after the tournament) pounced on Scottsbluff for five first-half goals en route to its big victory. Spreier, Thompson and Garetto all netted two goals apiece to fuel the Bulldogs’ offensive attack, and Jennifer Barge added the other goal. Garetto and Shelton Blanco had assists. Gering had four goals in just 13 minutes during its explosive first half. The Bulldogs outshot the Bearcats 40-3, and Martin made two saves in goal. Against Kearney, Gering needed just one score to claim fifth place. That came off Thompson’s foot in the 60th minute. In getting the shutout, Martin saved 12 shots. The Bulldogs had 13 shots, the one making the difference. Scottsbluff, which began its GNAC tournament weekend with a 4-0 loss to Norfolk, followed its shutout defeat to Gering with a 3-2 setback to Lexington. Gering played Cheyenne East on Tuesday, and then Monday the Bulldogs will face Scottsbluff on the teams’ shared home field at the Dr. Allan C. Landers Memorial Soccer Complex. Kickoff is set for 5 p.m. The following day, Gering travels over the county/state line to Torrington for a 5 p.m. match. The Bearcats entered this week with a 3-6 record heading into their Tuesday match at Cheyenne Central. Scottsbluff is then off until next week, when it plays at home against Gering on Monday and then Newcastle, Wyo., on Tuesday, with kickoff at 3:30 p.m. Read more by Terry Gaston |
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