Thompson Valley shut out Berthoud 3-0 on Tuesday to complete a sweep of the other three Thompson School District programs, and the Eagles did it with a familiar face on the opposing sideline.
The Spartans are coached this season by Thompson Valley graduate and former Eagles assistant coach Kylee Dunham, and Tuesday’s Longs Peak League contest was her first on the opposing bench at Ray Patterson Stadium.
Her time as a player, and then as the team’s JV and assistant coach at Thompson Valley, was special to her and prepared her to lead her own program, she said.
“Coaching at Thompson Valley where I played was definitely nice,” she said. “Growing up an Eagle, getting to coach as an Eagle was an awesome opportunity to kind of have that coaching platform for experience, to be able to coach and move on with my passion.”
After taking a year off following her last as an assistant for Thompson Valley head coach Randy Chase, she took the job at Berthoud.
Head coaching was always something she wanted to do, and when the opportunity arose — especially one in her old school district — she took it.
“My goal was to eventually be a head coach wherever that fit were to be,” she said. “That was my goal, follow that passion, be a head high school soccer coach.”
Her Spartans were 3-2 on the season entering Tuesday’s game and were coming off a 5-0 victory over Northridge in their league opener last Thursday. Thompson Valley, with wins already over Loveland and Mountain View, was coming off a league-opening win of its own last Thursday against the Mountain Lions.
Tuesday’s win over Berthoud marked the fifth year in a row Thompson Valley swept all three of its district rivals. The Eagles did not face Loveland in the COVID-shortened 2021 season.
Elena Montoya got the scoring started for the Eagles against the Spartans. She scored her fifth goal of the season in the 13th minute. In the 27th minute, Riley Darcy scored her third of the season to give Thompson Valley a 2-0 lead.
Jesika Hopkins scored the lone goal of the second half. Her second of the season came in the 69th minute and put Thompson Valley up 3-0.
“I think it was a little iffy at the beginning, but we came out with the win,” Thompson Valley junior captain Claire Pierson said. “I think we had positive vibes. It definitely could have gone better, but we came out with a win, and it was good.”
It was the Eagles’ second consecutive win and fourth in a row without a loss. Before defeating Mountain View last week, they tied Poudre 1-1 and Mead 0-0.
With conference play underway, wins are more important for a team that Chase says still has work to do.
“We’re doing OK,” Chase said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got two more games coming up, a big game Saturday against Windsor. Windsor is a tough team, so we’re just trying to prep for all those things. Our big goal is to win conference. So, we’re making sure that we try to win every single one of these conference games.
“This one was kind of a rough game tonight as far as getting everything together, so we’ve just got to keep working on it.”
Thompson Valley improved to 3-2-2 overall and 2-0 in the Longs Peak League. The Eagles will host Greeley Central on Thursday before traveling to Windsor on Saturday.
While the Eagles’ goal is to win the conference title, the Spartans are hoping to end a long playoff drought with their new head coach. Through six games, the Spartans are 3-3 and making progress every time out on the pitch.
“The team has responded very well,” Dunham said. “I think they were looking for something new to build the program, kind of make it a little more competitive. So far, we’ve really been hitting those goals slowly as we build, kind of having more of that intensity and that competitive factor that wasn’t always in the program before.
“We have seen a huge jump in improvement. We typically struggle in this Thompson Valley game, but the girls made me proud. They really came out and put pressure on them where in the past usually there’s that fear to put that pressure on them. So, they’re really improving and having that winning mentality and constant aggressive pressure that they haven’t had before.”
The Spartans will look to get back over .500 overall and in league play when they face Mountain View on Friday at Mountain View.
