By Jordan Schachterle

The Surveyor

A hat trick in soccer is not a common feat, but it happens fairly often. Now, a hat trick in the final five minutes of a game to win it, that’s unheard of.

The Berthoud High School (BHS) girls soccer team traveled to Roosevelt High School (RHS) on Monday night to face the RoughRiders. The Spartans took the game in overtime 3-2.

“We’ve been progressing throughout the season so far and we’ve just kept improving,” junior Daria Degnan said, “we just had to keep our heads in the game and keep going as hard as we could.”

From the start, the RoughRiders controlled the game. They put their first point on the board after 12 minutes. Berthoud had some solid shots on goal in the first 40 minutes but for the majority of the half, the RoughRiders had it in their favor.

RHS put in another goal with just over four minutes remaining to extend their lead to 2-0 going into the halftime break. It would’ve been easy for the Spartans to hang their heads and give up but with the help of self and teammate motivation and some smart changes by head coach Isaias Gomez they stayed in the game.

“At the half I asked our number nine which is (Hailey) Pepper not to play in the box, but to play diagonal side-to-side. That helped out Daria (Degnan) which is our other striker and Maddie (Barcewski) on the give and go’s because they were playing four in the back and two stoppers,” Gomez said about his strategical changes, “that’s where in the first half we weren’t getting through because she’s just used to receiving and going but this time of course they played four on her and she couldn’t do anything.”

The BHS defense kept Roosevelt quiet, shutting them out for the entire second half, but for 35 minutes, the Spartans were kept silent too. That was until Degnan broke it open with a goal with just 3:57 remaining.

The junior striker wasn’t finished yet, sending another to the back net just two minutes later. As the buzzer sounded signaling the end of regulation, the Spartans and RoughRiders each sat at two.

“I thought to myself ‘we have to finish it off hard there’s only a couple minutes left so I may as well get it all out there,’ you can’t give up no matter what,” Degnan said about her performance.

After a quick break between periods, the girls took their positions on the field for the final sudden-death 10 minutes of play. It didn’t take long for Berthoud to finish it off as they continued on their offensive hot streak.

Daria Degnan was once again given the ball and she was set up for a shot. She took the chance on the challenging shot, sending the ball on a high path to the top half of the goal. Spartan fans sat at the edge of their seats’ as it soared over the goalkeeper’s hands and hit the back of the net hard. Degnan had not only just buried the game-winner, but she completed the hat trick at the same time.

Some of the crowd and the team went into a frenzy celebrating the goal and others were left speechless as they stood in amazement. Degnan and the Spartans had completed the comeback with an overtime win.

“Fantastic,” Gomez grinned as he spoke about Degnan, “even before the game, I told her you’re going to score today. She’s like ‘okay coach, sure’ and I just told her go play and see.”

The Spartans look to carry over the energy and excitement from their comeback win to their home game on Friday night against the 7^th ranked Silver Creek Raptors.