Norsemen win Shootout, nearly score tournament shutout

Kofa's Alex Alonzo accomplished something no other player could in the Shamrock Shootout during Saturday's championship game at Yuma Catholic.

She scored a goal against the Valhalla Norsemen.

But the lone score of the weekend against the girls from El Cajon, Calif., did not stop them from winning all four of their contests and beating the Kings 3-1 in the final.

"Last night we had a good game against San Luis. It was fast and physical, so that was good coming into today," Valhalla coach Shane Martinez said. "Kofa's not bad, a little bit more physical, but I was excited that we got a good match."

The championship match was mostly a one-sided affair as Valhalla was constantly on the attack and rarely let the ball move past midfield. But the Kings fought through nearly a dozen corner kicks and four injuries to keep things tied going into the final 30 minutes.

"Their possession beat us," Kofa coach Marisela Velasquez said. "We have a very good defense and people that were hurting, but they played as hard as they could."

Whitney Johnson broke the draw three minutes into the second half and put the Norsemen ahead with a kick that hit the crossbar and bounced inside the goal line. But Alonzo, one of the Kings' back line defenders, tied things up on a free kick 10 minutes later, launching the ball over a wall of five defenders and slipping it inside the top right corner.

"They work hard, and most of our free kicks come from our defense, but it was a sweet shot to the corner," Velasquez said.

Valhalla's onslaught never slowed down, and Johnson scored again with 5:20 to play from point blank after a well-served ball along from Olivia Harrelson at the end line. Devony Savage added one more for insurance near the end.

"We were excited to make it into the championship because it's a team we'll probably never meet and we've heard they'd been walking through the tournament," Velasquez said. "It gave us a gauge of where we are, and I think we we gave them a good game."

Kofa advanced to the final with a 3-0 win against tournament host Yuma Catholic, netting two goals from Bri Rios and one from Alonzo. Valhalla beat Southwest 6-0 in the other semifinal, giving the Norsemen 18 total goals in their triumphant return to the Shootout after a two-year absence.

"We had some tough games in San Diego before this that pushed our confidence down, and we'd been working on fitness coming in and were glad to play on nice grass fields again," Martinez said. "We enjoy it here. It's a good bonding experience for a team that's relatively young, and it's fun to get out of San Diego and only have to go couple hours away."

Yuma Catholic beat Southwest 2-0 in the third place game, and San Luis beat Antelope 6-1 in the consolation rounds. Yuma High's consolation game with Fountain Hills ended in a 2-2 draw.