The girls needed the win, and they got it, thanks to heads-up play from Karissa Thomas and Liz Adams.
The South Whidbey High School soccer team beat Anacortes 3-1 in a crossover game on Wednesday, allowing them to advance to the District 1 tournament.
The Falcons (8-7) will play the Northwest League’s No. 1 seed Burlington-Edison at 1 p.m. today at Burlington-Edison, a double-elimination tournament with four available berths for the state tourney.
Against the Seahawks in the 20th minute, Thomas received a pass from Gwen Bakke up the right sideline. Thomas dribbled the ball forward to the right corner, where she shot it 25 yards to the upper left-hand corner of the net at an impossible angle.
“I brought the ball down, but my lousy cross made it curve into the goal,” Thomas said. “I got lucky on that one.”
In the 43rd minute, Seahawk Jesse Olsen scored to the right side of the net on a cross from the left side by teammate Sarah Koss to even things up at 1-1.
The second South Whidbey goal saw Thomas again take the ball on the dribble through the middle and pass the ball on a left slant to Liz Adams, who buried a left-footed shot to the lower- right corner of the net.
“It was a perfect set-up,” Thomas recalled. “Liz was overlapping me and she ran into it.”
Adams said she was surprised to find the ball right in front of her.
“It hit the far post and bounced in,” she said. “It was my first goal and felt pretty good.”
In the 74th minute, Thomas stole the ball about 35 yards from the Anacortes goal and finished with a long shot to the upper-left side of the net. Thomas said the Seahawks took a goal kick, but it hit one of their players so she took advantage for the final score.
“We showed up expecting a difficult game,” Thomas said. “But when we started playing, we quickly fell into our comfort zone.”
Falcon coach Paul Arand said the back five positions — played by Christine Johnson, Shannon Craig, Megan Larmore, Laura Barrow, and keeper Natasha Kamps — overcame a barrage of shots late in the game to keep the lead. With nine minutes left in the game, Barrow kicked away a ball on the goal line. Kamps came up with three pressure saves to secure the victory.
“Karissa stepped up big-time in this game, taking advantage of a handful of opportunities,” Arand said.
“She also did a nice job of receiving the ball in the front third of the field and redistributing it to her teammates. Liz Adams and Gwen showed success throughout the game by winning the ball and turning the play back into offensive surges,” Arand added.
Thomas and Adams hope fans brave the cold and show up today for the first round of playoffs.
“Should be an exciting game,” Thomas said.
Jeff VanDerford can be reached at
221-5300 or jvanderford@southwhidbey
record.com.
