Sophomore Makayla Aman came out to prove her skill as a top five keeper in Arizona, however in the opening round, there was nothing to prove as the keeper did not touch the ball once in her half of play. This was the result of the possession gridlock that formed during Tuesday night’s playoff open against Millennium High School Tigers.

With the energy high off the claiming of the Section 1 title, the Pumas began this cat fight with possessive domination as they effectively controlled the opening possessions of the game. This resulted in Millennium offensive struggle which was proved by not playing on the Puma’s side of the field until the 8’ minute of the game. This would result in the first of only five times that the fifteenth ranked team controlled possession on the Puma’s side of the field.

However, this gridlock was halted temporarily after a pass from senior Lauren Hawley which lead to senior Kambree Meskill 14th goal of the season. This put the Pumas up 1-0 at the ten minute mark of the game. “[The goal] was the first; and started to get our team going and building the momentum,” Kambree said. The momentum was not enough to completely break away from the gridlock as the game continued in a possessive battle on the Tiger’s side of the field.

Minutes later however, the Pumas got another chance to pull away from the game as, off an assist by sophomore Amanda Dahl, senior Gina Bracamonte sniped one from downtown to put the Pumas in a comfortable 2-0 lead twenty-three minutes into the game. Regardless of the deficit, Millennium forced the Pumas into that stalemate gridlock possession battle for the rest of the half.

The second half however did not change for either side as in results by Millennium lack of offensive pressure and missed opportunities on the Pumas end, the game ended in the 2-0 fashion. “I am extremely proud of them,” Coach John Roberts said about the game. “there is no reason not to.” Something that both Coach Roberts and Kambree Meskill agreed on is that in preparation for Saturday’s game against  Desert Mountain, the Pumas need to focus on finishing and controlling possession of the ball.