Girls soccer: Switch pays off for Jackson against Kamiak

Published 7:43 am Friday, October 23, 2009

EVERETT — It took a little bit of a shake up, but Jackson maintained its undefeated record and earned the No. 1 4A seed to the district playoffs with a 2-1 Western Conference South Division win over Kamiak Thursday night at Everett Memorial Stadium.

The Timberwolves (13-0-1 overall, 7-0-0 league) weathered a spirited effort from Kamiak (8-4-2, 4-3-0) and senior midfielder Megan Bolmes threaded a through ball in between several Knights defenders to set up Brianna Ellis for the game-winning goal in the 73rd minute.

Jackson head coach Mike Bartley, noticing his offense starting to slow following a first-half full of missed opportunities and close calls, switched Bolmes with sophomore forward Cara Wegner in the 58th minute. Wegner moved into the center midfielder and Bolmes went up front to attack in an attempt to jump-start the offense.

The move paid off quickly in the 60th minute when Bolmes took a throw-in from Denae Fitz deep in the Kamiak zone, dribbled around two defenders on the left side and beat Kamiak goalkeeper Tana Foster with a hard drive to the far post.

“If they’re allowing Bolmes to turn and involve Wegner, it (Jackson’s initial strategy) works well,” Bartley said. “But I found that if they’re not going to do that (allow Bolmes to dictate flow in the middle) and I swap them, then Wegner’s work rate is higher as far as her speed and quickness and Bolmes becomes more of a target player.”

The 1-0 lead was short-lived when Kamiak’s Emma Makela capitalized on some miscommunication by Jackson goalkeeper KC Wilson and two defenders. A high-bouncing ball came to the top of the box and while Jackson tried to figure out what to do, Makela — Kamiak’s freshman reserve goalkeeper — pounced and chipped the ball into the goal for the equalizer.

The strike was Makela’s first career goal for the Knights. Makela has played the last two matches for Kamiak instead of sharing time in goal with Foster because starting forward Lauren Luke is out with a strained knee ligament.

“She (Makela) did exactly what she needed to do,” Kamiak head coach Beth Stewart said.

Jackson had its streak of six-consecutive Wesco South shutouts snapped by Makela’s 63rd minute goal.

“We hadn’t been scored on — we were 6-0, no goals against (in league),” Bartley said. “So it was uncharacteristic of us to make that mistake.”

It was an intense 10 minutes before Ellis’ brace with both teams sending attacks into each other’s zones. Kamiak saw a corner kick cleared away and Jackson continually pressed forward until Bolmes slid a pin-point pass onto a well-timed Ellis run into the box.

“Megan’s big gift is vision,” Bartley said. “She has great vision and ability to hold the ball. Teams kind of stack up on her — they’ll double or triple her in the middle of the field. If I put her up high, teams kind of relax a little bit because they have four (defenders) and so no one really marks her so she has more time to do things.”

Bolmes smartly held onto the ball allowing Ellis to bend her run into Kamiak’s zone.

“I kind of held onto the ball a little bit longer so that I could get it to Bri before she was too far offside,” Bolmes said.

Kamiak sophomore defender Paige Littrell frustrated Bolmes for much of the first half with physical play and stingy defense.

“I thought Paige Littrell had the game of her life marking Megan Bolmes,” Stewart said. “I debated, I almost dropped her back (when Bolmes moved to forward). … Megan wasn’t open until Mike (Bartley) moved her up.”

Jackson clinches the No. 1 4A seed to the 4A District 1 playoffs, but the overall Wesco South regular season title is still up in the air. Meadowdale is well within striking distance of the first-place Timberwolves.

“That (earning the No. 1 4A spot) was the big thing about tonight,” Bartley said. “Now next week is all about trying to win the South with Meadowdale. On Tuesday, Meadowdale has Edmonds-Woodway, so we’ll be Woodway fans on Tuesday.”

Kamiak has lost two consecutive games for the first time this season, but Stewart isn’t worried about her team.

“I think the girls are down from the losses,” Stewart said. “But I think they’re excited moving forward and for the playoffs.”

Stewart said the squad hopes to have Luke back for the playoffs — in the meantime Makela will continue to fill the vacant forward role and Foster will be a wall in goal.

“She (Foster) is good, we knew that going in,” Bartley said. “They’re (Kamiak) always a good team, they always play us tough.”