Claudia Gil-Osorio scored twice for the second game in a row Tuesday, but with that as the only regulation scoring South Whidbey had, the first round of playoffs again came down to a shootout.
Matched against Meridian for the second time in six days, the Falcons had to play catchup on their home field before finding bad kharma in overtime. Last week in a second-place conference tiebreaker, the South Whidbey girls beat Meridian 3-2 in a game that had to be settled with a shootout. Knotted at 2-2 again after regulation and two overtime periods had expired, the Falcons went back to the penalty kick format to decide the game.
This time the Trojans had the upper foot. In this, the fourth exhausting meeting between the two teams this season, the Meridian girls had just a little more energy left at the end than the Falcons and managed to put three shots past South Whidbey goal keeper Allyson Riggs. At the other end of the field, the Falcons missed all three of their shots.
It was not the way South Whidbey wanted to end the game, especially after outshooting the Trojans in regulation and hustling harder than they had all year. South Whidbey coach Paul Arand said his players gave their all.
“The girls were really tired,” he said.,
Sharp, active play in the first half of the game kept both players and fans on their toes. With somewhat better ball possession than the Trojans, the Falcon girls drove repeatedly at the opposing goal, with Osorio, freshman Jenna Wild and senior Tanya Smart all taking shots. Defenders Willa Purser, Kim Julius and Rita Jones largely kept their zone clear, using a combination of well-timed passes and big, wild boots to move the ball.
But after a scoreless first half, Meridian caught a break early in the second when Falcon Riggs put her arm up to indicate an off-sides violation. At the signal, several defenders backed off the ball to wait for the whistle. It never came, and the lapse gave Trojan senior Autum Covert a long look and an easy shot at an open net.
Gil-Osorio got her team on the scoreboard three minutes later, taking a crossing shot from Wild within inches of the net and practically walking it into the goal.
It wasn’t long before Meridian again surprised the Falcons. With their top scorers this season, sisters Katie and Jennifer Johnson, settling for a supporting role, largely unheralded defender Lindsay Hayes put her team back on top with an unexpected goal. Gil-Osorio evened the score again with a long, hard shot off a Smart header, but it only served to send the game into overtime.
With the loss, the Falcons go to a do-or-die game Saturday. They will travel to Bellingham to play Blaine, the loser of a 2-1 game against Sultan Tuesday. The winner of the game will go to state; the loser’s season is over. The game will be held in Bellingham Civic Stadium starting at 1 p.m.
