Shorecrest girls soccer overcomes early slip-up to salvage draw

Published 11:15 pm Tuesday, September 23, 2025

SHORELINE — In hindsight, Shorecrest girls soccer felt they weren’t ready.

Their match against Edmonds-Woodway had barely kicked off when Warriors junior Akiko Ikegami settled a cross and slotted it into the bottom left corner, giving the visiting side a 1-0 lead in the second minute at Shoreline Stadium on Tuesday.

“I just think I wasn’t locked in yet,” Shorecrest goalkeeper Mickie McNeil said. “That was my problem, and I’m going to fix that.”

McNeil shouldered the blame, but her teammates in the field echoed accountability for allowing it to happen. In a fairly balanced Wesco South 3A/2A division, there’s no room for giving goals away, so the Scots (3-1-2, 2-0-1 league) battled back and found an equalizer midway through the first half before ultimately settling for a 1-1 draw against the Warriors (3-2-1, 2-1-1) after the golden-goal extra periods went scoreless.

With the draw, Shorecrest extended its undefeated streak to five games, staying out of the loss column ever since its season-opener against Snohomish, a 3-0 loss on Sept. 4. The program graduated 11 seniors from last year’s team, but has still found a way to get results despite the growing pains of its new starters.

“Every game has shown so much improvement,” Scots coach Mindy Dalziel said. “I’m so proud of them because they just continue to just fight and keep working, and they’re not willing to give up. They just find ways and ask questions and want to get better, and it shows.”

Facing an early deficit against Edmonds-Woodway, McNeil stepped up with key saves to keep the Scots within striking distance. Warriors senior Jane Hanson arced a free kick high into the air in the fifth minute, which would have scored on the downward trajectory if McNeil didn’t get her arms out to bat it down.

About five minutes later, Ikegami streaked down the left side of the field off a roll pass from senior Abby Peterson and delivered a cross into the middle, but McNeil got her hands on it before the rebound was sent over the net.

From there, the Scots started to tilt possession towards the Warriors’ side of the field, but had trouble getting to the net until junior Olivia Taylor timed a perfect through-ball to sophomore Pip Watkinson, who dribbled into space before shooting it off goalkeeper Morgan Smith’s leg and in to tie it 1-1 in the 19th minute.

“I think we really came out with tenacity (after Edmonds-Woodway scored),” Watkinson said. “I mean, I got that goal, and I think that’s what really set us, and we were like, ‘Okay, we’re back in this, we’re ready to go.’”

With the score tied, both sides displayed more urgency down the back stretch of the first half, trading chances throughout until Shorecrest junior Sydney Beer went down in the final two minutes among a cluster of players towards the Scots’ net.

She remained down through the halftime whistle as a trainer looked at her, and she had to be taken off the field in a cart, unable to put any weight on her right leg. Her knee appeared to be wrapped by the end of the game, when her teammates went up one by one to comfort her.

Beer’s status going forward was not specified, but her teammates used her as a source of inspiration, trying to find a go-ahead goal in the second half.

“We were kind of just saying, ‘Let’s score for Sydney,’” Watkinson said. “‘Let’s show ‘em we can overcome hard stuff together.’”

Shorecrest came out controlling possession to open the second half, but Edmonds-Woodway worked back into it down the stretch. Warriors senior Jane Miceli nearly scored with under eight minutes left, lobbing a shot just barely over the crossbar. It landed on the netting behind the goal, briefly making the Edmonds-Woodway bench believe she had scored.

With no more goals in regulation, the game extended into two five-minute periods of golden goal overtime. While neither side posed a big threat in the first five minutes, perhaps the biggest chance of the night came in the second period, when McNeil failed to secure a Warriors cross and let the ball roll out in front of an exposed net, but a defender managed to step in and make the clear.

“I was glad I got my hands on it,” McNeil said. “But after I hit it and I knew I didn’t catch it, I was really hoping my defense would get there, and I’m so glad they did.”

Watkinson had one more opportunity with around three minutes left, taking a pass from senior Izzy Neeley-Holmes down the right sideline all the way up to the 18-yard box, but the shot went high.

While the Scots couldn’t find the go-ahead goal, they were happy to recover from the early setback and at least gain a point in the standings.

As of Tuesday night, four teams sit atop the Wesco South 3A/2A standings with seven points, with Archbishop Murphy and Shorewood joining Shorecrest and Edmonds-Woodway, but the Scots have a game in hand and are the only one of the four without a loss in league play so far.

It’s early in the season, but Tuesday’s tight matchup displayed just how competitive the league figures to be in 2025.

“Every game for Wesco South is going to be a test,” Dalziel said. “Because there is a lot of parity in the league, and it can be anyone’s game at any moment, at any time.”