The 2001 Montezuma-Cortez High School girls soccer season came to a close last weekend on a road trip to the Grand Junction area. The Panthers lost to Montrose 4-1 and dropped a 6-0 decision to Fruita-Monument.

Montrose scored in the first minute of the game, which was a downfall of this year’s team. But the Panthers were a never say die team and always battled hard, usually coming from behind. They tied it 1-1 about 20 minutes later on a beautiful one-on-one with the goalie. Nicki Fuchs placed the ball in the corner of the net past their goalie.

"That was exciting because she started the season as goalie so now she was on the flip side of the coin," first-year head coach Monica Plewe commented. "Emilie Lanier played great in goal all weekend. In both games she had 17 saves each."

The score remained 1-1 at the half.

Cortez was scored on 23 minutes into the second half. About two minutes later the Indians were awarded a hand ball in the penalty.

"Even though Emilie made a great dive she couldn't save it," she recalled.

Montrose scored again five minutes later. Plewe said the game was well fought match and the girls came off happy about their play.

The next day the Panthers took on Fruita-Monument. The Wildcats jumped to a three-goal half-time lead en route to the win.

The Wildcats got two goals each from Bethany Tripler and Alisha Phillips. Adrienne Ross and Nicole Crawford each added a score.

"Again the other team scored in the first minute of the game. After telling them, again, that was their wake up call, the girls began to play," Plewe said.

She reported that Felice Lucero stood out in our midfield with excellent touch and control. Carelita Perez and Jasmine Shower made some great offensive runs out of the back.

"Most of our shots over the weekend came from Fuchs, Elise Stephens, Nicole Stephens, and Jenn Siracusen," she noted.

"Again the girls represented their school and community on the trip. At the beginning of the season our goal was to be proud of the season in every respect. Other than laziness on the part of a few girls getting to or staying in class that Friday morning, the trip and the season were a success. The team has great spirit. We never even had one complaint about assigned roommates, we had a lot of team dinners, the team was really good at including everyone and the parents were so supportive," she remarked.

The Panthers finished the season 4-11-0 under Plewe.