Navara’s hat trick helps shot-happy Lady Zs blank Valley, move over .500

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

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Makhia Harding Morgan Simpson Vada Beasley

The Rochester girls soccer team was coming off a 3-0 win at Taylor Monday, but coach Eric Backus was not exactly thrilled.

Taylor had only eight players, and even though Rochester had three more players, they only scored on three of their 29 shots.

Backus said the Taylor goalkeeper did not have to move much on the other 26 shots.

He urged his players to shoot more, and they obliged in a 9-0 win over Tippecanoe Valley.

Rochester moved over .500 and improved to 5-4-1. Valley dropped to 1-8.

Rochester has exceeded their win total from last year (four).

Taylor Navara scored three goals for her second hat trick of the season, and Makhia Harding, Morgan Simpson, Makenna McKee, Vada Beasley, Zandra Handy and Alexandria Cortes-Gustafson scored once each.

Cortes-Gustafson, who has started every game in goal, was taken out of the net in favor of McKee with 10 minutes left and put on the field and scored the game-ending goal with 19 seconds left.

A high school game ends once one team is ahead of another by nine goals and there are fewer than 20 minutes left in the game, per the IHSAA Mercy Rule.

Seven of the goals were unassisted. Navara and freshman Charlie Backus had one assist each.

Meanwhile, Valley was held to one shot on goal.

“Night and day,” coach Backus said, comparing the Taylor and Valley games. “We were connecting some pretty decent passes, and our shot selection was much better. It was literally a night-and-day difference. … We went 60 minutes 11-v-8 and couldn’t put a goal on them. We made that keeper look like a superstar.”

The loss came one day after Valley edged LaVille 2-1 to snap a nine-game losing streak dating back to last year.

Simpson finished on a loose ball from the left side of the goal to start the scoring at the 34:11 mark.

Harding made it 2-0 with 22:58 left when she stole a Valley pass in the box and beat Valley keeper Haley Derf with a low, hard shot to Derf’s left.

Navara fired a bullet past Derf with 4:58 left in the half to make it 3-0.

A Navara unassisted tally with 25:16 made it 4-0.

McKee, a senior but a newcomer to soccer, scored off a Navara assist to make it 5-0 with 16:25.

Navara completed the hat trick with 14:35 left. Seventy seconds later, Beasley scored to make it 7-0.

Derf stopped Izzy Hook’s penalty kick try with 11:15 left, but an unassisted goal from Handy made it 8-0 with 6:30 left.

Cortes-Gustafson found an opening inside the 18 and took a Backus feed and scored.

“I thought the girls communicated well,” coach Backus said. “We moved the ball pretty well. Our shot selection was still kind of off just a little, but once we started scoring, it got a lot easier. I think they were a little tired too from playing last night.”

Rochester has scored 25 goals on the season, and 10 different players have scored at least one. 

Rochester scored 27 goals all of last season, and only seven different players scored at least one.

Perhaps no player found her goal more meaningful than Harding, a senior who scored her first career goal.

“I would say that it was really heartwarming because my first two seasons of soccer I was mostly playing in the goal, and I never really got to experience the field,” Harding said of her goal. “I’ve never really been into soccer. It was never one of my top sports, I would say. But (former coach) Chantal Rensberger, (teammate) Bria’s mom, called my mom my sophomore year and asked if I would be able to play because we were down numbers. And I said yes. So starting from in the goal to being on the field tonight and finally scoring a goal like I’ve been wanting to do, it just felt really good.”

The game also marked Valley coach Travis Bonfiglio’s return to Rochester. Bonfiglio was coach Backus’ assistant coach when Backus coached the Rochester boys team from 2022-25. Backus switched to coach the Rochester girls after last season, and Bonfiglio took the vacant Valley girls position. Bonfiglio is also the middle school coach, which will allow him a first-hand chance to build the feeder system. He said he plans on staying at Valley “for a long time.”

Bonfiglio said beating LaVille might have come with a cost.

“Eric’s great,” Bonfiglio said. “I love the guy. I wish we would have been able to come in a little stronger. I think the LaVille game really just took it out of us. I think we were just pretty banged up from that, and we just didn’t have as much in the tank as we needed, but I respect Eric, and I respect what he’s doing with the girls. He’s got a really good group, it looks like. It was nice to come back, but I wish it could have been a little more competitive.”