Girls soccer: Perry posts 2nd tournament shutout

December 9, 2014 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365


Perry girls soccer coach Jason Dunn likes the makeup of his 2014-15 squad and after two matches there's much to like.

Perry got two goals from Ashley Dahl and two assist from MaKenna Dunn to post a second successive shoutout to begin the season. The result Tuesday afternoon was a 4-0 victory over Red Mountain on the third day of play at the 2nd annual Coyote Classic at Campo Verde High School.

Perry is 2-0 on the season and in the tournament. Red Mountain dropped to 0-1-1 overall and in the tourney. Each has one more pool play match -- Perry vs. Corona  on Thursday and Red Mountain vs. Corona on Wednesday.

"We're still in the process of working things out," Dunn said. "This year's team is deeper and can be stronger than last year's (D-I) runner-up. We're looking at a lot of players, and we may have a different plan than I usually like."

Dunn is most comfortable with an aggressive, attack style game. Based on personnel he is leaning toward emphasizing defense as the Lady Pumas try to reach the Division I finals for a second consecutive year.

Dunn opted Tuesday to play two all-state defenders at midfield and see what some younger players could do in their spots in the back. It's that kind of experiementation that could lead to a different brand of soccer this year.

In the meantime, having the likes of Dahl and Makenna Dunn back as the offensive point leaders from last year is a nice benefit. Dahl led Perry in scoring last year and MaKenna Dunn paved the way in assists. Dahl scored the Lady Puma's first and third goals on Tuesday with a header on the first and booting one home on the other. Lauren Hawley and Maryn Behling scored the other two. MaKenna Dunn had assists on two of the goals via corner kicks.

The primary goal Perry has set as a team fits with a defensive posture.

"We don't want to give up as many goals as we did last year," Dunn said. "We lost last year's keeper (Carly Sanstedt) to injury this summer. We used two keepers today (Trinity Kaufman and Taryn Pallas). Both of them have atrributes we can use. If you took the best of what both have we'd have a super keeper."