Campo Verde, Mingus girls earn D-III soccer title berths

February 5, 2013 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


Campo Verde's girls soccer team did what a bunch of teams haven't been able to do lately against Verrado -- score.

No. 4 seed Campo Verde tallied just once Tuesday night, but it was enough to edge the top-seeded Vipers, 1-0, in a Division III semifinal at Arcadia High School.

The victory positions Campo Verde to accomplish a number of things come Friday (Feb. 8). First and foremost, if it defeats Mingus (a 3-0 winner over Cactus in Tuesday's other semifinal, it earns its own state title. As extra motivation, if the Coyotes win it would be the school's first-ever team athletic title since Campo Verde opened in 2008. An added bonus that pushed them a bit was getting to play the championship game at home -- something pre-scheduled months ago.

"Knowing all that from the get-go was motivation," Campo Verde coach Rosie Headley said. "Verrado is a great team. We had the lead (at halftime), but I told the girls they are going to come out 10 times harder the second half....

"We scouted them. Saw two films on them. The girls watched the film and knew exactly what we needed to do to beat them and they did it."

Campo Verde (22-2-1) faces Mingus on Friday at 5 p.m. at Campo Verde. Had Verrado (17-3) prevailed, it would have had the chance to win the first state title in of any kind in its school's history. Verrado won its first two state playoff games 3-0 and 4-0 and last surrendered a goal back on Jan. 14. The Vipers had shutouts in their last six games prior to Tuesday.

Campo Verde scored the game's only goal in the 37th minute to carry momenum to intermission. Junior Meg McDowell's throw-in was handled by senior Breanna Olsen, who managed to flick the ball to senior Shannon Costello, who in turn found the back of the net.

Other than a couple of flurries in the first half and late in the second, Verrado was quiet on the offensvie end.

In Tuesday's earlier D-III semifinal, Haley Backus scored on a header in the 47th minute to break a scoreless tie and No. 3 Mingus added two more second-half goals to defeat No. 7 Cactus.

Nataly Escamilla  tallied in the 56th minute from about 30 yards out and Martina Bueno capped the scoring in the 74th minute. Mingus has posted shutouts in all three of its state tournament victories (Safford and Catalina were the others.