Prep girls soccer: Mead fends off Kamiak, 3-2

Published 11:21 pm Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Three goals are usually plenty in soccer and Mead had that many in the first half of its 4A first-round state tournament game against Kamiak on Tuesday at Albi Stadium.

It turned out the Panthers needed them all in a 3-2 triumph to move into Saturday’s round of eight.

Breanne Taylor won the battle with Kamiak goalkeeper Tana Foster following a nice series of passes and drilled home what proved the winning goal to give Mead a 3-1 lead four minutes before halftime.

The Knights tallied early in the second half with Rachel Varner scoring off an assist by Taylor Stanley and the Panthers spent the rest of the game keeping the visitors at bay.

“I was real happy with what we did offensively,” said Mead coach Steve Snider of the outcome. “The ball movement was crisp and we were playing it on time and creating good opportunities. But we kept giving up soft goals against the run of play and gave them a little bit of life.”

As a result, both teams appeared comfortable in their attack in what tended to be an open-field game on the spacious Albi field that made marking help difficult.

Mead, which outshot Kamiak 19-6, gained the upper hand with a perfectly executed corner kick by Morgan Fryman and header by Jill Pecka for a goal nine minutes into the match.

Eleven minutes later it was 2-0, Fryman the recipient of a pair of nice passes up the right side and across to the left of the middle of the field. Her shot was true.

But it wasn’t long before before Kamiak halved the score on a goal by Cassidy Seckman at the 27-minute mark. Hillary Hermes had the assist.

Again Mead’s accuracy with its long passes got the ball in position about 25 yards from the goal. Kamiak’s keeper challenged the ball out front and it left her vulnerable. Taylor made her pay.

“Our wide midfielder, Lindzee Baker, crosses it in and Lindsey Pangborn tries to get a touch off,” said Taylor. “It slides to the middle and it’s an open shot right there. I saw an open corner and said ‘that’s mine.’”

The score proved vital on the fast and wide Albi surface.

“It’s definitely way wider (than a school field),” said Taylor, “and it spreads out the game a lot. Something we try to do is get as wide as we can so we can get a decent ball across. I think we did awesome tonight.”

The Panthers (17-1) were knocked out of state at Albi a year ago. Saturday, they are at Pasco for a berth in the state semifinals.

“We’re playing well with great team chemistry and have the potential to make a run,” said Snider. “But everybody you play at this point is good.

You’ve got to recognize you can never relax.”

Shorecrest advances

East Valley came out on the short end of 1-0 decision against Shorecrest at Albi that brought an end to the Knights’ season.

Eighty minutes of defensive thrust and parry produced a scoreless standoff in regulation during the nightcap.

Two minutes into the first overtime, Agen Heffernan got behind the defense and drilled a shot into the right side of the net that left the Knights with an 8-8 season record.

“I thought she was offside, but I didn’t have the angle,” said EV coach Gabe Escobar. “That was an outstanding defensive match all the way around. I thought both teams really played well.”

They battled up and down the field and neither could get a solid shot on goal until three minutes before half when Shorecrest apparently scored the go-ahead goal. That one was waved off by an offside call.

The second half was more of the same, the Knights getting a decent shot off a corner kick that was wide at the 75-minute mark and the Shoreline-based Highlanders countering from the corner two minutes later that EV goal keeper Brooke Myre hauled down in a crowd.

“We came out and did everything right,” said Escobar. “Eventually the ball has to find the back of the net.”

Unfortunately for East Valley, it was Shorecrest that found it.