EDMONDS – Roll Tides, Roll.
For the second straight season, The Gig Harbor Tides have knocked a local girls soccer team out of the Class 4A state playoffs in the first round.
Wednesday’s victim, Edmonds-Woodway, lost its first-ever state playoff match 2-0 at Edmonds Stadium to bring an end to the best girls soccer season in the school’s history.
The Tides, who improved to 15-4, will play a quarterfinal contest at 7 p.m. Saturday at Curtis High School against Wednesday’s Decatur-South Kitsap winner. The Warriors’ season ended with a 13-5 mark.
E-W coach Bill LeCompte said it was hard to be disappointed in his Northwest District-champion team.
“To make school history is something special,” LeCompte said. “To have the group of girls we have graduating is a bittersweet feeling right now. We’ve got a great squad and as much as we’d like to see another opportunity, we’ve done something no (E-W) team has ever done.”
Gig Harbor put Edmonds-Woodway’s dream season on the brink immediately.
With barely a minute gone by, Tides midfielder Joanie Hamilton’s pass slipped through the Warriors defense to the place they least wanted the ball to go.
Sophomore forward Dolly Enneking controlled the ball 20 yards away from the E-W goal and blooped a shot over Warriors goalkeeper Lauren Natterstad as she began to charge out of the goal. The perfectly-placed ball arced over Natterstad’s outstretched arms and bounced into the net for Enneking’s 23rd goal of the season.
“We started off a little flat,” said LeCompte, whose team had won 13 of 14 after an 0-3 start. “Through the season, we’ve started off a little slow and been able to battle through it. Unfortunately, when you start off a little slow, you have to play a little bit more risky and take some chances.”
That, he said, is how the Tides got their second goal.
Kelly Irving essentially secured Gig Harbor’s victory with an unassisted goal in the 69th minute. With the Warriors having to be more offensive-minded with only 11 minutes remaining, the Tides got a three-on-one opportunity from 45 yards out. With her back turned to the lone Edmonds-Woodway defender, Enneking sent a touch pass to Irving, who was running down the middle of the field. Irving dribbled down the field and tapped a shot past Natterstad into the right side of the goal for the final 2-0 score.
Natterstad stopped 10 Gig Harbor shots – several of them on dives – before limping off the field in the final minute with a foot injury. Gig Harbor took 20 shots at the goal compared to nine from the Warriors. Led by goalie Jamie Souza, the Tides recorded their 13th shutout in 19 games.
Gig Harbor coach Jenny Krueger said she never felt comfortable despite her team’s quick first strike.
Edmonds-Woodway was out-shot 10-4 in the first half, but had a couple of solid chances. Hayley Zevenbergen took a strong shot from 10 yards out in the eighth minute, but the ball hooked just wide of the left post.
Sophomore forward Alex Kirk, who entered the game with 19 goals, had a one-on-one opportunity against Souza in the 32nd minute, but elected to pass to teammate Emma Brewster. The pass sailed wide before Brewster could get a foot on it.
“I have to give Edmonds-Woodway a great round of applause for fighting the entire game,” said Krueger, whose team lost to Bothell in a 2002 quarterfinal. “That’s a solid team, and congratulations to them on a great year.”
Goals-Gig Harbor: Enneking, Irving. Goalkeepers-Gig Harbor: Souza. Edmonds-Woodway: Natterstad, McKeown. Records-Gig Harbor 15-4. Edmonds-Woodway 13-5. |
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