Sydney Sladek’s goals give Trojans state tourney berth

Sydney Sladek has scored plenty of goals for Pahrump Valley’s girls soccer team this year.

None were bigger than the two she had Wednesday night at Faith Lutheran.

Sladek scored a goal in each half to lead Pahrump to a 2-0 shutout win over the host Crusaders in the Class 4A girls soccer state play-in match.

“We’ve been working for this for almost a year,” said Sladek, who has 44 goals. “We’ve been training every day ... just for state. We’re ready for it.

“It was definitely worth it. You’ve got to stay dedicated. This was our goal, and we’ve achieved it. Now we just have to work hard and keep going.”

Jennifer McCaw chipped a pass over the defense in the 15th minute that found Sladek, who dribbled inside the penalty box and unleashed a shot inside the right post.

“When you get a beautiful pass like that, you can’t screw it up,” Sladek said. “So I kept calm and placed it in the back of the net.”

Sladek also had a goal midway through the second half, stealing the ball 60 yards from goal and thundering down the middle of the field with only Faith Lutheran goalkeeper Kelly Zufall to beat for the score.

Pahrump’s defense did the rest, holding the Crusaders (12-6-1) without a shot on goal in the first half and only allowing two shots all game.

“Our defense had to be strong,” senior defender Terah Larmouth said. “We knew we had a pretty good shutout, and we had to keep it that way. We put our heart and soul out there to keep it out of the goal. It was a lot of pressure, though.”

Kiaya Nauck made two saves to earn the shutout for the Trojans (13-1-1).

Pahrump advanced to play the North Region winner in the Class 4A state tournament on Nov. 11 at 2 p.m. at Damonte Ranch in Reno.