EDMONDS — To win in soccer takes talent, teamwork and maybe a good bounce now and again.
Edmonds-Woodway got that good bounce — literally — for its first goal against Eastside Catholic on Tuesday night, and it was the spark that helped lift the Warriors to a 3-0 victory in a first-round Class 3A state playoff game at Edmonds District Stadium.
Early in the second half of a scoreless contest, Edmonds-Woodway’s Kia Mackey sent a long free kick toward the goal, intending for one of her teammates to make a play on the ball. Instead the ball landed amidst a crowd of players, including Eastside Catholic goalkeeper Leah Day, and then took a high bounce on into the back of the net.
The kick dropped “in kind of a no-man’s land for that keeper,” said Warriors coach Bill LeCompte. “It’s a tough ball to hit or to get to for anybody.”
So, no, the play did not unfold exactly as planned. “But we’ll take it,” LeCompte said with a grin. “We’ll take it for sure.”
Edmonds-Woodway tacked on two goals by talented midfielder Gabby Clark in the final 15 minutes to clinch a home game in the state quarterfinals this weekend. The Warriors will host Central Kitsap, which defeated Marysville Pilchuck in a shootout on Tuesday night.
Clark, a senior, scored her initial goal off a long throw-in by teammate Chiara Serafini. The throw reached Clark by the near post, and she flicked a backward header past Day into the far corner.
With just under five minutes remaining, and with Eastside Catholic pushing forward for a scoring chance, the Warriors broke out in transition with lots of room to run. Forward Ellie Shull deftly led Clark with a pass into open space left of the goal and she finished with a shot that Day had no chance to stop.
“I can’t say enough about (Clark),” LeCompte said. “She’s pretty special to me. She’s been working hard for the last four years, and just to see her go out and put up two tonight, that’s huge.”
On a team with a lot of new faces, “she’s really kind of taken charge of trying to figure out how to score goals for us,” he said. “And when she’s not (looking to score), she’s looking for the pass to give somebody else the opportunity.”
In the first half against Eastside Catholic, the Warriors “were just working together really well,” Clark said. “Everything was going just the way we wanted it to. (But) we just didn’t finish. … That was the last piece we needed, and (we got it) in the second half.”
Edmonds-Woodway is making a strong push to repeat as the Class 3A state champion. After losing their season opener vs. Mercer Island, the Warriors have since gone unbeaten for 19 consecutive games (a string that includes two ties).
“After tonight I think we’re going to be a lot more confident than we were,” Clark said. “For a lot of players, this was their first state game ever. But … I think we have a lot of confidence in each other and we have a lot of chemistry.”
Going forward, LeCompte said, “I like our chances. I like what they do and I like the way they’re playing. They’re playing with some wisdom that some of the older kids got last year, definitely.”
But in this season, he went on, “I’m challenging them to write their own story. It’s a new year, it’s a different story and it’s a cool story. So we’re hoping to see if we can make some noise.”
At Edmonds Stadium
Goals—Kia Mackey (EW), Gabby Clark (EW) 2. Goalkeepers—Eastside Catholic: Leah Day. Edmonds-Woodway: Hannah Hicks. Records—Eastside Catholic 12-7-1 overall. Edmonds-Woodway 17-1-2.
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