Douglas senior Alissa Holley prepares to take a shot against Coronado in NIAA State semifinal play Friday at North Valleys High School. The Tigers fell to the Cougars in the 74th minute 2-1.
RENO — Douglas High struck first Friday afternoon in the NIAA Division I State Girls Soccer Championships.
In the end, however, Taylor Kornieck and the Coronado Cougars stood tall in their 2-1 semifinal win against Douglas at North Valleys High School in Reno.
Kornieck, a 6-foot-1 senior midfielder and U.S. Women’s National U18 team member, scored her second goal on a header in the 75th minute to break a 1-1 tie for Coronado (19-1-2).
Douglas (15-6-3) took a 1-0 lead on the game’s first shot, but in the end, closed the book on a successful season in which it finished third during the Sierra League regular season and as the region tournament runner-up. The Tigers went 24-1 and reigned as region champions in 2014.
“This team over-accomplished, I think, considering we lost 11 kids last year,” Douglas coach Werner Christen said. “But we had some good returning kids, so I expected to be back here. And we were. We could have easily been playing tomorrow (for the state championship), but they made that nice play at the end.”
The decisive play came after sophomore Katelyn Moxley lofted a corner kick directly in front of the net Koerniek headed into the net.
“Moxley always looks for my head,” Koerniek said. There’s nobody as tall as me, so it came down to the header … when I scored, I was just ecstatic.”
The Tigers scored in the eighth minute when freshman forward Alexa Moss converted on a short left-foot kick. The goal was the fourth of the postseason for Moss.
The Cougars tied it in the ninth minute when Moxley fed a pass on the right side to Koernieck, who blasted in the equalizer.
“We let them answer too early after we scored,” Christen said. “I think if we had been able to settle down for a few more minutes, we would have been OK.”
Then again, the Tigers knew what they had to do on the defensive end.
“Obviously, she’s tall, very good, very talented and very quick. She kept us busy,” Christen said of Koernieck. “Defensively, we tried to keep someone on her and shadow her, and have a shadow on our defender in case she got through. Still, with those long legs, she created a lot of space.”
Senior Caitlyn Bidart and junior Sydney Woodward were the primary “shadow” defenders. Bidart came up big in the final seven minutes when she disrupted a shot by Coronado’s Carli Young, who appeared to have an open look from in front of the net.
“We’re going to miss her,” Christen said of Bidart. “She’s a solid defender.”
Unofficially, junior goalkeeper Grace Brooks finished with five saves in her first postseason start.
“Grace did a tremendous job. But I expected that,” Christen said of Brooks, a third-year varsity veteran. “She made some great saves today.”
In the other semifinal, Arbor View rolled past Manogue 7-0.
