4A District 1 soccer: Kamiak prevails in shootout

Published 11:17 pm Tuesday, November 4, 2008

LAKE STEVENS — Kamiak wasn’t about to fail again.

After losing the past two seasons in the 4A District 1 playoffs, the Knights shook off the past and defeated Lake Stevens 1-0 in a shootout Tuesday at Lake Stevens H.S. to obtain their first 4A state playoff berth in school history.

With their previous two losses in the district playoffs coming by penalty kicks, they connected on all of their attempts, defeating Lake Stevens 4-2 in the shootout. They will face Jackson Saturday in the title game.

“We wanted to attack early, and we knew this was going to be an extremely physical game,” Kamiak head coach Beth Stewart said. “I told our team ‘You just have to hold on.’ and knew that their confidence heading into the game was high. I wanted us to win so bad, and now it feels so good.”

In the shootout, Lake Stevens midfielder Annie Thomas sneaked a shot in the left side of the goal. Kamiak’s Paige Littrell answered, shooting one past Lake Stevens goalie Kaitlin McKenzie. Lake Stevens and Kamiak connected in each of their second attempts, tying the shootout at 2-2.

The Wesco North’s leading goal scorer — Kaleen Berg who had 18 regualr season goals — missed on Lake Stevens third attempt, capping a frustrating game for herself, as she had limited opportunities in open field.

“They played her really tough,” Lake Stevens head coach Andy Knutson reiterated. “You could even say that they played our entire team extremely tough.”

It was then in the hands of Kamiak’s Hillary Hermes to score the winning kick. She laced one into the back of the net and screamed with her hands in the air, running towards her Kamiak team.

Hermes was knocked down, tripped and short of breath throughout the game so Stewart took her aside for a pep talk before Hermes took the game-winning penalty kick.

“It (the contact) took her out of her game,” Stewart said, “But it didn’t matter at the end of it. She made a goal that gave us a win.”

“I was just trying to stay level-headed,” Hermes said. “This is absolutely amazing, we have worked so hard this season.”

It was a fierce battle at the Lake Stevens end for most of the first half. Lake Stevens was able to make a few breakaways, but Kamiak controlled the tempo of the game, something both teams knew would be a key element for the victory.

“The start of the game, Kamiak just took it to us,” Knutson stated. “We struggled with getting anything going. I told our team at halftime ‘You have to say to yourself that you played your best.’”

Lake Stevens began applying more pressure at the start of the second half, sending crisper passes, more devastating shots at goal, and using a stingy defense. At 57:30, Lake Stevens missed a golden opportunity to score the first goal of the game, but shot wide right from 10 feet out, point blank in front of the goal.

Then in the 78th minute, the Vikings Sandra Osborn hauled in a long pass but failed to connect, missing wide right. Minutes later, Annie Thomas deeked right and kicked a blistering shot that rattled around the hands of Kamiak goalie Tana Foster, but she held on and forced the game into overtime, and then into the penalty kick session.