E-W beats Monroe to advance

Carly MacKay showed a lot of patience over the past four years.

Now that MacKay and four fellow seniors have led Edmonds-Woodway to its first foray into the postseason since the Warriors earned a girls soccer state playoff berth by winning the Western Conference championship in 2003, they intend to stick around.

MacKay scored a goal late in the first half that proved the difference as Edmonds-Woodway eliminated the Monroe Bearcats with a 2-1 victory in a 4A District 1 crossover game Oct. 29.

“I’ve been waiting since freshman year for this so it’s really a good feeling,” said MacKay whose goal with just over two minutes to play in the first half came just five minutes after freshman forward Carlin Huegli gave the Warriors a 1-0 lead.

“Everyone did a really good job tonight,” MacKay added. “Our team has really picked up in the second half of the season, we’ve got a rhythm now and I think we’re ready for Kamiak.”

The playoffs have just started and already E-W coach Bill LeCompte sounded anxious for a little familiarity after edging past Monroe, the No. 3 seed from the North Division.

“In the crossovers you don’t know what you’re getting,” LeCompte said. “At least with Kamiak we’ve seen them twice and have an idea of what they’re going to try and run at us.

“Monroe moved the ball a lot better than what we saw when we scouted them out,” LeCompte continued. “They’re a quality opponent and it’s good to walk away with a win.”

Monroe (8-7-2) saw its season come to an end after a stirring October run into the playoffs.

“I’m just real proud of the girls,” Monroe coach Kathleen Potthast said. “We came from the bottom of the pack in the first half of the season and then we went 6-1-1 in the second half.

We were young and stepped it up, we just didn’t quite finish when we needed to. Edmonds-Woodway is going on and that’s great for them.”

Through the first 20 minutes, Monroe pressed the action but failed to capitalize on several opportunities in the box off of throw-ins by Kaitlyn Chesemore.

E-W had a series of scoring chances clustered together just past the midway point of the first half. One shot went wide left, another was headed out of danger by Monroe’s Sarah Shelton, a third was drilled over the top bar by MacKay and a pair of chances off corner kicks rattled around to no avail.

At 32:23 the Warriors caught a break. A Bearcat defender slipped while battling Huegli on the right side and the freshman forward drilled a low shot inside the far post for a 1-0 lead.

Monroe battled back gamely. There was near miss by Hannah Hawkins that was stopped by E-W keeper Jordan Holmes (four saves). Three minutes later the Bearcats’ Jenna Herman barely missed and her teammate Shelby Sweet couldn’t quite convert the rebound.

Then, at 37:50 MacKay took a pass from Smith, rotated right and fired a left-footed shot inside the far post to pad E-W’s halftime lead to 2-0.

“I was standing in the 18-yard box when Cheyenne passed the ball across,” MacKay said. “The defender was on my right-hand side and I shielded her off, turned and waited until I had a good angle and (shot) when the keeper came out.”

E-W’s advantage might have grown to three goals 10 minutes into the second half, if not for a leaping save by Monroe’s Philippart.

From that point on the Bearcats played with a sense of urgency.

At the 62 minute mark, Herman’s missile of a shot from 18 yards out was pounced upon by the Warriors’ Holmes. The ball popped up and out of the keeper’s grasp, but Lorelei Ritzert’s alert follow-on shot was hammered off the right post.

Undaunted, with 10:49 to play Monroe’s relentless attack paid off when Herman lofted a short corner kick to Chesemore.

Chesemore turned the ball inside to Ritzert charging in from the far side and the freshman forward used her body to shovel in a goal that cut the deficit to 2-1.

The Bearcats got another corner kick opportunity with about three minutes to play, but were unable to come up with the equalizer.

Bob Mortenson writes for The Herald in Everett.