SHORELINE — For a moment, it looked as if Edmonds-Woodway girls soccer would finally get the edge over Snohomish in the District 1 3A semifinals at Shoreline Stadium on Tuesday.
Despite tilting the action towards Snohomish’s side through much of the first half, the score remained 0-0 through the first 58 minutes. As the game crept into its final ‘quarter,’ Edmonds-Woodway finally caught Snohomish in a vulnerable moment with goalkeeper Addison Carter on the ground following a save. The ball rolled back out towards an attacker just outside the 18-yard box, and with the net exposed, it looked as if the first goal of the match would be scored.
That was until Snohomish senior Hailey Hinton jumped in the way, blocking the shot with her body and clearing the ball upfield, eventually making its way to senior Nevaeh Howerton. Howerton collected the ball and rolled down the left side, getting behind the Edmonds-Woodway backline and steering straight towards the goal, where a light curl towards the far post put Snohomish ahead 1-0 in the 59th minute.
The No. 1 seed Panthers (14-3-1) scored again in the 72nd minute in a similar sequence — stopping a chance from the No. 4 seed Warriors (11-4-3) and countering the other way — en route to a 2-0 victory, punching their ticket to the state tournament and earning a spot in the district championship.
“When there’s a goal about to be scored, your first instinct is to clear it and get it out,” Hinton said. “So I feel like my first instinct was to get the ball out.”
An instinctual clear turned out to be the pivotal moment of the game, but it was no accident. Turning defense into offense is a significant part of Snohomish’s foundation. Looking back at the 52 goals the Panthers scored this season entering Tuesday’s matchup, coach Brielle Dodge concluded that the back line and/or defensive midfielder contributed to 24 of them (46 percent), either with an assist or scoring the goal itself.
Dodge made sure to inform her players of that stat before the game, and it translated on the field once again at the perfect time.
“This is nothing new when you get to postseason, right? It’s how we’ve been playing all season long,” Dodge said. “But it’s just that defense-first mentality, and eventually, you take advantage of those times where they crack in those transitions up, and that’s exactly what we did. They were able to capitalize when they needed to, and have the maturity to put the ball away.”
Despite Edmonds-Woodway controlling most of the possession in the first half, neither side put together many threatening chances. There was plenty of physicality as the Warriors tried to break past the back line and the Panthers pushed them out. Snohomish had studied Edmonds-Woodway’s aggressive attacking tendencies while viewing film in the days leading up to the match, and put extra focus on shutting it out during practices.
“The start of the first half, they were on our side a lot, and we just kept breaking them down,” Howerton said. “Our coach has this saying where ‘if you hit a rock on a rock, eventually it’s going to crack,’ and I think that’s really what we did. We just worked them, and then eventually they started to drop and we really took our advantage.”
The Warriors opened the second half with a couple of close chances, sending a header over the net off a corner kick in the 43rd minute, followed by junior Jane Miceli splitting a defender and firing a shot off the crossbar and out just a minute later. Eventually, the Panthers started to push back.
Howerton had a couple of missed shots, firing wide from long range in the 52nd minute and narrowly breezing the outside right post off a free kick from sophomore Kennedy Perasso in the 55th minute before scoring the decisive goal off the breakaway in the 59th minute.
Edmonds-Woodway nearly tied it on a shot from Abby Peterson in the 70th minute, just barely knuckling over the crossbar, and it didn’t take long for her to threaten again, as she came back with a low, powerful shot that Carter dove to secure in the 71st minute. Had the ball escaped her grasp, Warriors junior Audrey Rothmier stood a foot in front of her, waiting to punch in a rebound. Carter made sure that wouldn’t be an option.
“Oh no, she’s not doing that,” Carter said, asserting she would have made another save even if the ball had popped out for the rebound. “I mean, (I) just gotta collect it all because I’m not going to let in a silly goal like that.”
Right after the save, the Panthers quickly worked the ball upfield to junior Lizzie Allyn, who pushed the lead to 2-0 on a powerful long shot in the 72nd minute. Practically every one of her teammates on the field mobbed around her, a mixture of relief and excitement buzzing through the group as they realized they had all but secured their spots in the state tournament and the district championship.
Once again, Snohomish capitalized by turning defense into offense.
“I think it really set our game up for success because we knew going into the game how we needed and what we needed to do to win the game,” Hinton said. “I think everybody all together realized that we do need to work on defense before we can worry about offense.”
The Panthers are heading to state for the first time since the current seniors were freshmen, and with that berth in their back pocket, they can focus entirely on trying to win the district title on Saturday against the No. 6 seed Shorewood, which Dodge labeled as “probably the best team that we’ve seen yet.” After getting upset in the 1 vs. 8 matchup in last year’s quarterfinals, Snohomish is determined to finish the job this season.
“I think they feel really fired and fueled from that,” Dodge said. “They wanted to make sure that they made it known that we were the one seed and we deserve to be that one seed. So going into the district championship on Saturday, it’s going to be fun. I think they’re going to get to unleash a little bit, and play their best version of soccer.”
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