Roundup: Palo Verde wins Southern Nevada Kick-off title

Two first-half goals proved to be the difference for Palo Verde on Monday night at Green Valley in a 2-0 win over Durango to secure the Southern Nevada Kick-off Classic.

It was the Panthers second straight year winning the preseason tournament, capping a stretch of six games in five days.

“You just don’t know what to expect early on, and there are some good teams in this tournament,” Palo Verde coach Jose Gomez said. “You don’t want to face them early on, but you also want to see how you do. As far as the games … it’s a lot of games.”

Palo Verde (6-0-0) remained unbeaten in the young season. Durango (4-1-1) absorbed its first defeat of the fall.

After the Trailblazers controlled the pace early, getting off four shots before the Panthers could get anything going offensively, Tanner Stevenson scored what proved to be an unlikely game winner in the 24th minute.

His free kick from 40 yards out took one high bounce, then sneaked just under the crossbar.

“That goal is a world of difference, because they had been controlling everything up to that point,” Gomez said. “It’s one of those things where you have so many bodies rushing the goal, and all you ask the kids is to put something on frame … It had one of those fortunate bounces.”

Durango coach Richard Cuellar was hopeful the ball would clear the crossbar.

“I thought it was going to go over and it just took a bad spin,” he said. “Even my keeper (Jason Sotelo) thought so. He punched and he thought he punched it hard enough.”

Sotelo finished with two saves on 11 Palo Verde shots. The Panthers Hudson Huckfeldt turned away all four of the Trailblazers nine shots that were on frame.

Nine minutes after Stevenson’s long shot, Michael Vogel headed home a long assist from Bryan Montoya just inside the near post. It was more than enough for Huckfeldt and Palo Verde’s defensive line.

“That second goal was beautiful,” Gomez said.

Durango did get two appealing looks in the final seven minutes, but couldn’t put them home. Bryan Nava’s free kick from 20 yards was turned away by a diving Huckfeldt. And Tyson Tesfamariam’s free kick from a similar distance sailed just above the crossbar.

“I like the way we played,” Cuellar said. “I think this is one of our rivals when we go into playoffs.”

SLAM Academy 2, Sky Pointe 0 — At Sky Pointe, Ivan Romero had a goal and an assist to lead the Bulls over the Lions.

Sammy Goodloe also scored a goal for the Bulls.

Bulls’ goalkeeper Luis Sanchez made three saves to get the shutout..

Mojave 12, Moapa Valley 1 — At Mojave, Jesus Ubario had four goals and an assist as the Rattlers routed the Pirates.

Francisco Rebolledo scored three goals, and Felix Perez and Johnathan Gonzalez each scored twice for Mojave. Brayan Martinez had a goal and three assists, and Ramon Iniguez added four assists for the Rattlers.

Bryan Robles scored for Moapa Valley.