Almost on cue after watching his sizable senior class saluted at halftime, Oscar Cosio kept an eye on the clouds as they reduced the sunshine over IHS Field to a gray, ghostly glow.
“Knowing we had eight seniors … they knew that was it for them,” he said after Ignacio’s April 30 season finale. “It was kind of a somber feeling, you know?”
Dried from the thank-you of a team-administered water dousing he received after a 4-nil loss to the eventual 3A Southwestern League champions, Cosio looked back at the match — and his first season in charge of the program — in a positive light.
“We kept Bayfield to four goals, which was impressive for us. We did well defensively,” he said. “I was proud of my girls, the way they kept themselves together.”
Freshman Maddy Duran put BHS ahead in the third minute, but IHS (0-12, 0-12 SWL) then buckled down and played one of their finest stretches of soccer, holding the Lady Wolverines scoreless for nearly half an hour. Sophomore Meaghan Mooney finally broke through the Lady Bobcats to mark in the 30th, and junior Effie Nistler followed suit in the 34th to stake Bayfield to a 3-0 halftime lead.
Bayfield senior Lindsey Reinmuth netted in the 47th what would be the final goal, as Ignacio withstood a closing barrage designed to get junior midfield sparkplug Sonja Fleming a score. Goalkeeper Nicole Williams, one of the class of 2013, finished with a media-counted 30 total stops.
Senior Aly Troup put the locals’ only first-half shot on BHS goalie Charlene Hammit, as well as the Lady Bobcats’ best second-half try on replacement Andrea Lahoz.
After IHS took the kickoff following Reinmuth’s strike and quickly worked the ball upfield, senior Kayla Knipp was instructed to put into play the only corner Ignacio would gain.
Though unable to get the ball as deep as she probably wanted, Knipp did boot it close enough for Troup to fight for it and take possession. Shooting low from point-blank range in the 49th, Troup unfortunately found Lahoz waiting on that same plane and the attempt was denied, along with the subsequent rebound after the keeper’s initial grip never truly tightened.
But a resulting roar arose from the bleachers that Troup, Williams, Knipp, Destinee Lucero, Angel Paul, Mary Kate Adams, Breana Talamante-Benavidez, and ShaRay Rock will never forget.
Bayfield, Telluride and Alamosa — the SWL’s 1-2-3 placers — earned berths into the 3A State Tournament but were all eliminated May 10, the bracket’s first afternoon.