The Denison-Schleswig girls’ soccer team topped Carroll 2-1 in the first round of the Class 2A Region 4 substate on Friday, May 17, and then bowed out in the next round on Tuesday, May 21, to Dallas Center-Grimes, 8-0.

The Monarchs finished their season at 7-10.

Dallas Center-Grimes took 26 shots on goal and the Monarchs had one. Monarch goalie Sam Chandler had 17 saves and Rosy Segoviano had one non-keeper save for the Monarchs.

The halftime score was 3-0.

“Dallas Center-Grimes (DC-G) was the defending state champions in 2A two years in a row, in 2022 and 2023. They have a great team with a lot of speed in all 10 field positions and a team full of girls who can handle the ball, take shots and pass the ball with both feet,” said Head Coach Chris Eller. “From what I heard, their entire team plays club soccer in Des Moines.

“Every time we had the ball, DC-G ran us down and took the ball from us. That resulted in us playing a lot of kickball as we lost the ball either dribbling or having short passes stolen all game, so we’d have to get rid of the ball quicker than we did against other teams,” Eller added.

He said on defense the Monarchs did a pretty good job of marking up the DC-G players, but their speed with the ball caused the Monarchs to scramble.

“When we had the ball on our offensive end of the field and they countered on us, we just couldn’t sprint with them so they had four of their goals on counters. Two of their goals came after steals of our attempts to clear from our defensive third,” Eller said. “When DC-G possessed the ball in their half-field offense, we did a great job of marking their switches and their give and gos.”

He continued that Sam Chandler had some great saves to keep the game close for a while.

“Overall, I thought our season was very positive,” Eller said. “We had three conference wins, which is our highest total since I’ve been coaching the girls’ team. We had a much tougher schedule than we did last season, and we went the distance against every team we played. Five of our 10 losses were to teams ranked in state: Gilbert is #2, Treynor #10 and St. Albert #11 in 1A. DC-G is # 4 and Lewis Central #13 in 2A. Four of our five losses against unranked teams were by one goal.”

Other season highlights

The Monarchs beat Glenwood for the first time since sometime before 2010

The Monarchs had five shutouts and allowed only one goal in six other games

The team defense and goalkeeping were outstanding all season

Of the six teams that scored more than one goal against the Monarchs, five are ranked in the state

“The girls have a lot to be proud of this season,” said Eller. “We had four seniors play their last game for the Lady Monarchs. We will miss Aremy Santos, Estela Lupian, Mia Garcia and Genesis Reyes. I want to thank those girls for all they have done for Lady Monarch soccer the past four seasons.”

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Monarchs win 2-1 over Carroll

In the first round of substate, the Monarchs took 13 shots on goal to four for Carroll. Jocelyn Serrato had three saves in the goal for the Monarchs.

Karla Sanchez scored the first goal for the Monarchs just 2:13 into the match. It was her third goal of the season. Estela Lupian had the assist, her third of the season.

Carroll tied the score with a counter with 20:05 remaining in the match.

Lupian scored the game-winning goal, her fourth goal of the season, with 8:57 remaining in the match. The goal was assisted by Aremy Santos, her second of the season.

“The girls had a good team win,” said Eller. “Carroll played much better than they did against us just a couple of weeks ago. We did a great job of controlling the possession and working for good shots.”

He added that Jocelyn Serrato did a great job of filling in for regular goalkeeper Sam Chandler.

“It was very nice to get a win in our last home game of the year,” Eller said.

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