EVERETT – Nothing lifts a team’s spirits for a lengthy playoff run quite like a lopsided victory in the first round.
So based on Wednesday night’s result, the Archbishop Murphy High School girl’s soccer team should be riding high.
The Wildcats opened the Class 2A state tournament in convincing fashion, overwhelming the Toledo-Winlock Indians 5-1 at Everett Memorial Stadium.
Kat Taylor had two goals and two assists and Ashley Reinig, Emma Nelson and Andrea Gaitan also scored goals for Archbishop Murphy, which if anything was more dominating than the final score indicated.
“It’s really good,” Taylor said about beginning the state tournament with such a convincing win. “It gives us a lot of confidence, more confidence than we had because we really don’t know anyone from (eastern Washington). So it gives us a lot of confidence to come in hard and play well.”
Archbishop Murphy (15-3) advanced to the quarterfinals where the Wildcats face Eatonville, a 7-0 victor over Columbia in the first round, Saturday at Everett Memorial.
Tori Herbert scored for Toledo-Winlock, which finished its season 14-5.
The Wildcats ran the Toledo-Winlock defense ragged throughout, outshooting the Indians 26-3. The first half resembled a shooting gallery – Archbishop Murphy shots that didn’t go in either whistled wide, hit the crossbar or forced brilliant saves from Indians goalkeeper Alycia Sundberg. Taylor and Reinig each scored on beautiful shots from outside the penalty box as the Wildcats took a 3-0 halftime lead.
“I thought our girls played quite well,” Archbishop Murphy coach Pat Jack said. “We’re going to have to learn to finish – we had God knows how many shots that didn’t go in. But the ones that went in were great and we were passing better than in our last game against Sultan (a 1-0 victory in the district title game).”
Reinig and Gaitan each added an assist for the Wildcats.
At Everett
Goals-Toledo-Winlock: Herbert. Archbishop Murphy: Taylor 2, Reinig, Nelson, Gaitan. Goalkeepers-Toledo-Winlock: Sundberg, Stiedel. Archbishop Murphy: Bourke, Jelinek. Records-Toledo-Winlock 14-5. Archbishop Murphy 15-3.
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