Truckee beats Dayton girls soccer

Truckee is heading to the 2007 Northern 3A girls' soccer championship match, but the Wolverines will have to wait three days before playing for the title.

Although Truckee blanked Dayton, 7-0, at Churchill County High School's Ed Arciniega Athletic Complex on Friday, the Sierra League's No. 1 seed will have to wait until today to find out its opponent.

Because of an officiating mistake involving Spring Creek and Incline on Thursday, both teams had to replay the entire match at Fallon on Friday with Incline snatching a 3-1 win.

The winner of North Tahoe and Incline will play Truckee on Tuesday at Damonte Ranch High School in Reno.

Dayton gave Truckee a quick wake-up call, and the Wolverines responded with the shutout.

"Their first breakaway woke us up," said Truckee coach Nikki Gerardi in describing how Erika Garcia hit the crossbar with a hard shot. "We began scoring after that."

Truckee scored four goals in the first half and added three more in the second half. Dayton's defense held for the first six minutes until Truckee's Katie Dill scored at 33:36. Dill had taken a shot on goal, but it was wide left. However, she was able to retrieve the ball and score the match's first goal.

The Wolverines kept pounding away at Dayton's defense and scored two more goals. Kelsi Decker nailed a shot form the left side, and Katy Stephens had a shot that scooted off Dayton's goalkeeper's hands midway through the first half.

Stephanie O'Neill scored the first of her three goals with time winding down in the first half. O'Neill took a pass from the right side and drove the ball in for a 4-0 lead.

O'Neill wasted no time in scoring her second goal within the first two minutes of the second half.

Truckee scored its sixth goal at 26:14 and the final goal in the waning minutes of the match.

Gerardi said her players passed well, and goalkeeper Michelle Plapp had five saves.

"They're a great team, and they pass well," Dayton coach Tim Logan said. "They, no doubt, have the potential to be No. 1 in the state."

Dayton will play in the consolation game on Tuesday with the winner advancing to state.

Incline advanced to the semifinal match after eliminating Spring Creek.

During the Thursday match, both teams were tied after regulation and two 15-minute overtime periods. In a shootout, Spring Creek apparently had won the game, 1-0.

However, the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association concluded on Friday that officials applied the rules wrong in the shootout and ordered the two teams to replay the match.

Incline coach John Paginelli said the Highlanders caught a break, but he said his girls played to win on Friday.

"The girls played well and did what they were asked to," he said.

Paginelli said he made some minor changes against Spring Creek, and he said they worked.

The Incline coach said the Spring Creek coaches and players showed class in their rematch.

"The coach (Dena Anderson) was a very gracious young lady," he said. "I feel bad for them."

Incline plays North Tahoe today at noon.

A tearful Anderson said it was tough for the team "to get up" for the game, especially how the Spartans left the field on Thursday thinking they had won the match.

Incline grabbed a 1-0 lead at 18:14 of the first half on a pass from Megan Peterson, She took a pass from Ashley Donaldson. The Highlanders struck twice in the second half on goals from Shawnee Wood and Sasha Severance.