EVERETT
While most of the country had its focus on names like McCain and Obama, the Stanwood Spartans girls soccer team was busy trying to keep its focus on Ellis and Wegner.
The Jackson High School duo of Brianna Ellis and Cara Wegner led the Timberwolves to a 2-0 4A District 1 tournament win on a chilly Tuesday night, Nov. 4 at Everett Memorial Stadium for the team’s fifth straight 4A tournament berth.
Katie Reese scored the winning penalty kick against Kamiak High at Oak Harbor High Nov. 8 to give the Timberwolves the district title and the number 1 seed heading into state tournament play.
K.C. Wilson started in goal Nov. 8 for Jackson. The win against Kamiak put Jackson into first-round state tourney play Tuesday, Nov. 11 against Stadium High at Everett Memorial Stadium, after the Enteprise’s deadline. (See enterprisenewspapers.com for Web updates).
Ellis, or Benna as her coach and teammates refer to her by, scored the game’s first goal five minutes into the contest setting a pass from Lori Deland before shooting the ball up and over Stanwood goalkeeper Haley Haugstad. It was the midfielder’s 10th goal of the season.
Wegner gave Jackson a 2-0 lead against Stanwood, scoring her team-leading 13th goal of the season on a missed shot by Deland.
Deland’s incredible shot was a rocket from 45 yards out that nearly cleared the outstretched arms of Haugstad ricocheting off the top cross bar and back onto the field where Wegner met it for the goal.
“Everybody was hoping (it was going in). I think the encouraging thing was we talked about shooting high and shooting hard and keeping (Haugstad) under pressure,” Jackson head coach Mike Bartley said.
Despite the end of the Kristi Kingma-era (Jackson’s standout soccer player who led the Timberwolves to the state tournament in all four years at Jackson) and having only one senior on the roster the Timberwolves (13-1-3 overall) haven’t seemed to miss a beat.
“We lost Kingma and lost (Laura) Hernandez. I pretty much knew it was going to fall on Benna (Ellis) and (Megan) Bolmes. All of a sudden this freshman shows up and she’s outstanding. That was an awesome thing to find her and between the three of them they’ve been fabulous,” Bartley said.
Junior co-captain Bolmes was also quick to compliment her freshman teammate, “We always shoot for going the farthest we can. It’s a big deal. We did lose Kristi and Laura but we got Cara, she’s definitely a good player. I don’t think we’d be where we are without her.”
Stanwood (8-5-4) will bounce back to play Shorewood in a loser-out game at Stanwood High School at 7 p.m. Thursday.
“I am disappointed we were right with them. At halftime we had outshot them. We felt like we could compete but couldn’t capitalize,” Stanwood head coach Lori Stunz said, noting that Jackson had just three shots on goal in the first half, two for scores.
The Spartans, a year removed from a disappointing 3-7-4 record and a sixth place finish in the Wesco North, were trying to make its second 4A state tournament appearance.
Stanwood placed second at state in 2006. That was also the last time these two teams matched up against each other. The Spartans defeated Jackson in the 4A District 1 title game 2-1, the win coming in the middle of the Spartan’s hottest streak of the season. Stanwood won six straight before losing to Woodinville in the state title game.
KC Wilson recorded the shutout in goal for the Timberwolves.
“The key to our success is our rock solid defense. It starts with our defense and then it goes to our big three, Wegner, Benna and Bolmes. Those three have really contributed,” Bartley said. The shutout was Jackson’s 11th of the season.
Kevin Johnson is a reporter with the Herald of Everett
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