Kamiak girls soccer tops Edmonds-Woodway for key Wesco South win

Published 11:23 pm Monday, October 24, 2011

MUKILTEO — As the four seniors of the Kamiak girls soccer team exited the field, toting purple and white balloons and gift bags after their final home game of the season Monday night, a group of rowdy Kamiak students linked arms, forming a tunnel of noise and cheers for the Knights players to walk through.

If one looked close enough through the crowd, one could see there was an extra Knight making it a quintet of players that were surrounded by jumping and screaming students.

Maddie Seckman celebrated along with the seniors after their Senior night. The sophomore defender earned a spot in the postgame celebration, scoring twice to help Kamiak beat Edmonds-Woodway 3-1 in a crucial Wesco South game.

The win knots the Knights (8-4-1 league, 8-6-1 overall) with the Warriors (8-4-1, 8-5-2) for second place in the South standings behind Jackson (10-1-2, 11-2-2), which has already clinched the title.

Kamiak jumped out with three goals in the first 16 minutes and the Warriors — winners of seven straight entering the game — couldn’t get their offense going until it was too late, scoring their lone goal in the 63rd minute.

“That’s a huge win for us,” Kamiak coach Beth Stewart said. “I’m really proud of the girls to come on and put that much pressure out right in the very beginning of the game.

“We’ve gotten ahead in some games and then we’ve backed off and let the team back in the game.”

Seckman and senior Page Littrell made sure the lapse did not happen again.

Littrell wasted no time putting the Knights ahead. In the fifth minute she gathered a loose ball that squirted from a scrum at the top of the Warriors’ box and drilled a ground ball from 30-yards out near the right side of the frame to the far post. EW’s Kierra Towell could only watch from the back line as the shot surged into the net.

“Senior night. What more can you ask for to step up and hit a goal that we’ve been looking for all year to have the center back step up into that space,” Stewart said of Littrell’s first goal of the year. “For her to step up and do that especially tonight was just fantastic.”

In the 13th minute Littrell took the first Knight’s corner of the game and only one of the first half. The center back’s bending blast came in front of the goal waist high in front of Seckman, who finished with a shot with her thigh to the back of the net for a 2-0 Knights edge.

Three minutes later Seckman struck again, this time thanks to a beautiful run by senior Lauren Luke. The Gonzaga-bound forward took the ball at midfield and danced free of defenders with a veritable dribbling clinic. When two Warriors converged on Luke, she fed the ball slightly backwards up the sideline where a streaking Seckman was on her hip. Seckman teed off from 35 yards out with a pitching wedge shot that flew over Towell’s head.

“She’s our dangerous on the outside (player),” Littrell said. “She’s the only one who can score from the 40-yard line.”

Prior to the game Warriors coach Bill LeCompte said that the key to his team’s turnaround this season was turning abundant scoring opportunities into actual goals. The Warriors began the season 0-4-2, including a 2-1 loss to Kamiak Sept. 20, before their seven-game streak.

Monday night the stout Kamiak back four led by Littrell didn’t allow many opportunities, especially in the first half. In the 35th minute Savanah VanCitters unloaded a rocket shot on Kamiak’s Emma Makela in goal. The junior keeper made the save, but the ball squirted free and there were no other Warriors in the area to clean up the chance.

It wasn’t until the 63rd minute that the Warriors broke through. It took a great corner kick from VanCittens. After a few rebounds the ball bounced to Rylee Peterson, who sent the ball to the back of the net to make the game 3-1.

LeCompte’s team plays Jackson Wednesday to help decide the league’s No. 2 and 3 seeds into the district playoffs. Kamiak plays Cascade, which could create a three-way tie for second with a win over Kamiak and a Warriors loss to the Timberwolves.

“Who knows what’s going to happen come Wednesday night,” LeCompte said. “To lose tonight and still be looking at second, that’s a testimony to how much we’ve done this year.”

Kamiak seniors Luke, Jessica Keller, Littrell and Kayla Peth were honored in a ceremony prior to the game.