Class AA Rapid City Stevens girls soccer's victory over Class A St. Thomas More Tuesday featured a slew of highlights: Junior forward and captain Ava Holzwarth netted a hat trick. Senior goalkeeper and captain Norah Tucker allowed just one goal outside of a penalty kick. And the team played with a palpable chemistry forged through offseason training and weekly team-building activities.
While Raiders head coach Luis Usera was happy, he was relatively straight-faced in his post-game speech, preaching humility after their 8-2 victory.
"When you get ahead of yourself and you start thinking you're all that and all the glory goes to you, then you're no longer thinking about the big purpose of how we got to where we're at," Usera, the team's longtime head coach, said. "I keep preaching to them, 'it's just another game.' They're on a business trip, and we have to be humble in what we do."