EDMONDS — This time last season, the Marysville Getchell girls soccer team was done playing.
The Chargers had posted a 3-11-3 record, eeked into a Class 3A Northwest District tournament play-in game with the district’s 10th and final seed and were then quickly dispatched in a shutout loss. It was a steep fall for a team that was coming off its first-ever state tournament berth and a spot in the district title game.
Before this season, the Chargers decided their goal was to get back to state, and Tuesday night they achieved just that.
Kenzie Thompson-Sheldon gave Getchell (13-4-1) an early lead and the Chargers pulled away with two goals late in the second half en route to a 3-0 win over Edmonds-Woodway in a winner-to-state 3A Northwest District tournament semifinal matchup.
“It just really means a lot … I’m just really proud of us,” Chargers senior Jadin Thompson-Sheldon said. “We’ve come a long way from last year to this year.”
The victory was just the second over E-W (14-3-1) for the Getchell program, which started in 2011. Both of those wins have come this season.
“This means so much to our program,” Chargers senior Sofia Trujillo said. “… It’s such a monumental thing because they’ve always been such a top team in the league. And then to go out in districts and know our competition and give everything we had and we were able to put up the result, I’m just so proud of my team.”
The three goals allowed was a season high for the Warriors, who had allowed just seven goals all season and multiple goals in a game only once — a 2-1 loss to Getchell on Oct. 1.
Getchell got on the board with a 15th-minute goal from Kenzie Thompson-Sheldon. The Chargers’ freshman fielded the ball after it bounced around a crowd in front of the net and sent a left-footer in for a goal from about 8 yards out.
The Warriors best first-half chance to tie things up came in the 26th minute. A well-placed corner kick gave E-W a nice look right in front of the net on a header, but Getchell goalkeeper Maddy Grandbois thwarted the scoring try with a nice save in traffic.
The Warriors only other shot on goal in the first half came when Deanna Montero Vega showed off some impressive handles. The sophomore weaved through the Chargers’ defense and set herself with a nice look at the net from deep, but Grandbois got in front of it to secure her second save of the night.
The game became much more physical in the second half, and E-W’s attack kept the ball on the Chargers’ side of the field for a good portion of the final 40 minutes and stoppage time. But the Warriors weren’t able to get many good looks at the net despite controlling the ball near the Getchell goal on multiple occasions.
“I think our team does a really good job of keeping each other in check and kind of having each other’s backs because when you’re playing a physical game, often times it’s easy to get in your own head,” Getchell coach Sarah Hereth said. “So to have teammates to bring you back into reality and get you out of that head space is really important, and that’s one thing that we have. We have that team unity.”
In the 72nd minute, Kirsten Crane controlled the ball and raced down the right sideline to start a breakaway for Getchell. She looked left and found sophomore Alana Gomez, who sent home an open shot for an insurance goal and a 2-0 advantage.
Just three minutes later, Jadin Thompson-Sheldon started a breakaway of her own. The senior drove to the net, juked the Warriors’ goalkeeper and sealed up the victory for Getchell.
With the win, the Chargers advance to the district title game for the second time in program history. They will face Ferndale at 7 p.m. on Saturday at Shoreline Stadium. A victory would secure the program’s first district title.
The loss drops E-W to a loser-out matchup with Shorecrest at 7 p.m. Thursday at Shoreline Stadium.
Ferndale 1, Snohomish 0 (4-3 PKs)
The Panthers girls soccer team had plenty of opportunities to take a lead in regulation, but couldn’t get past the Golden Eagles’ backline in a winner-to-state 3A Northwest District semifinal matchup.
“They played a great game tonight,” Snohomish coach April VanAssche said of Ferndale’s defenders and goalkeeper. “They definitely deserved the win for what they did. We’re obviously frustrated and disappointed. Not what we thought was going to happen tonight. We’ve been preparing since Saturday for this game tonight, so it’s a little disappointing.”
The game came down to a penalty-kick shootout. Each team traded scores over the first three rounds of kicks. Ferndale grabbed a 4-3 advantage after one of goalkeeper Hailey Nelson’s several nice stops of the night.
The Golden Eagles had a chance to seal it with their fifth penalty kick, but Grace Wales kept the Panthers alive with a save diving to her right. Snohomish’s ensuing try to tie it sailed over the crossbar and secured the win for Ferndale.
The Golden Eagles (12-5-1) moved on to face Marysville Getchell in Saturday’s district title game.
The Panthers (14-2-2) face Shorewood on Thursday at 5 p.m. in an elimination game at Shoreline Stadium.
“Ferndale came out with a definite game plan,” VanAssche said. “They executed well. They did not make it easy on us. I think there was few things we maybe should’ve stepped up better on, but like I told my girls, this is not a game we lost because we didn’t have good effort. We played hard. We played our game. We just needed to figure out how to finish and we couldn’t pull it out there tonight.”
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