TABAGATORS '87: Girls soccer nabs state title

A girls soccer team from the Neusport Football Club recently set the standard for future girls' squads from Las Vegas.

The NFC Tabagators '87 (14-and-under) girls team won the state championship and then advanced to the semifinals of the Western Regional tournament in Albuquerque, N.M.

The Tabagators fell to eventual region champion New Mexico, 3-1, to settle for a tie for third place in the West, but it's believed to be the furthest any girls soccer team from Las Vegas has gone.

"That's huge," head coach John Capurro said. "What that's already done for us is put us in a situation where we will be invited to college showcase types of tournaments this next season.

"The icing on the cake for us is we anticipate playing in Scandinavia next summer to play in the Norway Cup, and the girls will get a chance for some international competition."

The Tabagators topped Wyoming, 3-1, in their regional opener and then blanked Alaska, 6-0, before falling to eventual tourney runner-up California North, 6-0.

Nevada then outlasted Utah -- 4-3 in a double-overtime, sudden-death shootout -- in a game for the ages.

"I've coached for 22 years and that was the most exciting match that I've ever coached," Capurro said. "We were never ahead the entire ballgame -- until the last shot."

Nevada came from behind, twice, to tie the game at 2-2 at the end of regulation. Neither team scored in the first overtime and the squads exchanged goals in the second overtime period to send the match to a shootout, which was also tied after five shooters.

Mackenzi Thompson made a save for Nevada on the first shot of the sudden-death shootout and then Tawnhee Mokuiki cracked the game-winner to send the team into the semifinals.

Mia Tofano scored a whopping 12 goals in the tournament to lead the Tabagators.

"That's a goal scorer. That's a finisher," Capurro said of his speedy forward. "She has tremendous ball skills and she just has a nose for the goal.

"I really think the key to our success was our ability to possess the ball with an organized attack."

Other players on the team included Rebecca Pedroza, Kari Alexander, Alicia Garcia, Traci Bechdol, Irina Tharin, Kayla Bauder, Anna Houshangl, Krystal Jackson, Alex Pappas, Kasey Turley and Amber Dill.

Tierra McCullah played for the Tabagators in the state tournament, in which they edged the Devastation, 1-0, in the semifinals, and nipped the Jammers, 1-0, in the title tilt.

The Tabagators -- whose under-12, under-15 and under-18 girls teams also won state championships -- went undefeated in action in the Silver State Girls Soccer League the first half of the season.

The girls then joined the Nevada South Boys Soccer League, in which they struggled (2-11-1), but Capurro said it was a key to their postseason success.

"There weren't any challenges left for us in the girls league, so to become better players, we went into the boys league," he said. "A couple games got away from us, but most of them were competitive ballgames.

"It made our speed of play much quicker and I think it was the No. 1 contributing factor in us winning and getting as far as we did at regionals."

It was the final game with the team for assistant coach Sherry Alexander and several of the players -- some of whom had played together for six years -- and who were cut from next season's squad.

"For some of the girls, I was their first soccer coach, and to be with them at regionals to get that kind of recognition meant a lot to me," Alexander said. "I'm really proud of them. They were very brave to come back and play (after getting cut) because it would've been easy to think they're not good enough and just say forget it.

"It took courage and dedication for those girls to come together and play as a team."

Capurro also praised his players.

"This is just a great group of girls," he said. "They're solid citizens on and off the field. They really are fun to be around."