LAKEWOOD – The Archbishop Murphy girls soccer team accomplished three firsts Saturday night.
It won its first state championship, the first by any girls team in school history, and in so doing it defeated Cascade Conference rival Cedarcrest for the first time, 1-0 for the 2A crown at Harry Lang Stadium in Lakewood.
“We have been to six consecutive final fours, but this is our first championship and the first girls championship (in school history),” Wildcats coach Pat Jack said. “It feels real good, It feels real nice cause this is a 2A (title).”
Cedarcrest had previously defeated the Wildcats twice this season and had never lost to Archbishop Murphy.
“It’s the best feeling in the world; could not get better. We wanted this so bad,” senior forward Andrea Gaitan said. “If it was a different team it wouldn’t have been the same. It had to be (Cedarcrest), that’s why we had to win.”
“It was just so great to come out and win the right game,” sophomore defender Brittany Allen said. “They beat us in league, but we beat them in the game that counts.”
Cedarcrest, which was unbeaten going into the game, captured the Cascade Conference title while the Archbishop Murphy finished second.
“They may have won the league, but state champions sounds a lot better to us,” junior Emma Nelson said.
The Wildcats captured the first girls title in any sport in school history.
“That is really special to us,” Nelson said. “It is something that we will always remember. There are players from last year’s team and the year before’s team here and they are all happy for us. It is for the school not just for this group.”
“Simply amazing, I am speechless, I can’t really say anything about it, just excited,” Gaitan said.”
Sophomore Melissa VonderHofen scored the lone goal in the 46th minute 2 yards off the goal line in the corner of the penalty box. VonderHofen’s shot bent up and over the Cedarcrest keeper into the side netting.
“It was so nerve racking, I can’t believe I even scored that,” VonderHofen said.
“I thought I had to go run and finished it,” Gaitan said of the angle. “She got it in there, but that’s Melissa (VonderHofen) for us.”
“That gave us a lot of confidence,” Emma Nelson said. “It was a very nice shot, it was very awkward angle.”
Cedarcrest (22-1-0) rolled into the state finals undefeated behind star forward Amanda Johnson’s 40 goals. The Wildcats’ Allen stepped up to the task and nullified Johnson’s opportunities.
“Brittany played amazing,” junior Nelson said. “She did exactly what we asked her to do, she pretty much shut down Amanda (Johnson) and got her frustrated.”
“She did a great job of marking up on me,” said Johnson, the Red Wolves senior captain. “I tried to keep moving thinking she would get tired, but she never got tired. She looked like the energizer bunny out there.”
The Red Wolves, who had scored more than 100 goals this season, were shut out by the Wildcats defense for the first time.
“Their defense played amazing, we hardly got any chances off on them,” said Johnson who has verbally committed to Seattle Pacific University. “They did a great job on defense.”
Cedarcrest and Archbishop Murphy both will lose four seniors to graduation.
Wildcats’ Gaitan, Taylor Bass, Caroline Robinson and Lauren Jelinek will go out on top.
Cedarcrest’s Johnson, Amanda Biggs (verbally committed to Cental Washington University), Holli Butterfield and Nettie Kero will have the memories of an almost perfect season.
“I love my team,” Johnson said. “We gave them a heck of a game and tried hard but the season was like amazing, just disappointing at the end.”
At Harry Lang Stadium
Goals-Archbishop Murphy: VonderHofen. Assists-None. Goalkeepers-Archbishop Murphy: Hughes. Cedarcrest: H. Butterfield and K. Butterfield. Records-Archbishop Murphy 20-3-0 overall. Cedarcrest 22-1-0.
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