Vanguard’s Aliyah Moya is one of the most prolific goal scorers in Southern Colorado girls soccer

Ever since she started playing soccer at the age of five, Aliyah Moya had a knack for scoring goals, "I remember scoring from half field on the kickoff and I remember being like, oh I want to score goals more," says Vanguard senior, Aliyah Moya. And she scored more goals alright, in only three years of playing at Vanguard, Aliyah scored an eye popping 82 goals, including five goals in her first high school game, "Not just one but five goals my first game and I was like wow maybe this is what I'm supposed to do, play soccer and score goals," says Moya. Playing soccer and scoring goals is the reason why she'll get to play division one soccer next year at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, "They started looking at me and little did they know I had legacy ties at Southern University and so a lot of my family went there. I started realizing maybe this is a perfect chance to get to know people that I never really got to know," says Moya.

Aliyah believes that going to Southern is blessing because her mother Noel is originally from the south and now she'll get a chance to connect with her mother's side of the family, "I'm really excited to learn about my black culture and learning about the other half of me that's in me that I never got to, says Moya "I'm leaving one part of my family that I have forever but now I get four years of these people that I really do truly care about but I never got the chance to know. I think it's perfect, I'm going to college, playing soccer and getting to meet family."