The South Whidbey girls soccer team saw its season end with a 3-2 loss to Granite Falls in a loser-out Class 2A District 1 tournament match at Mount Vernon last week.
The loss came despite outstanding offense from Falcons Karissa Thomas and Jessica Manca, who each picked up a goal.
During the regular season, the Falcons (7-7 in league and 7-9 overall) had split their games with the Tigers.
Kaitlan Howell put the Tigers (11-6 overall) on the scoreboard early with a goal in the second minute of the game. Manca responded with a goal to even the score at 1-1 by the intermission.
“Karissa chipped the ball into the deep right zone; Jessica beat a defender and kicked it past their goalie,” Falcon coach Paul Arand said.
Manca said it was a hard game, and some of the Tigers’ tactics backfired.
“The scoring went back and forth,” she said. “When they started pushing us around a bit, it just made me want to get the ball back. And score.”
Just as the second half began, Thomas dribbled the ball hard down field towards the left side of the goal and followed up with a hard shot past Tiger keeper Kelsey Carlson to put the Falcons up 2-1.
With the Tigers trailing 2-1 midway through the second half, Granite Falls’ Katy Ann Powers assisted on Cacia Stevens’ equalizing goal. Five minutes after that Powers found the net with an assist from Howell to put the Tigers ahead 3-2.
“We played Granite well, enough to make their coach, Pat Pawlak, a little worried,” Arand said. “The game was pretty even, our passing was good and things were happening out there.”
Arand added that the Tigers have some talented players, especially Howell and Powers, and they came up with some big plays. He said that Laura Barrow, Megan Larmore, McKenzie Peterson and Christine Johnson played excellent defense.
“But key freshman forward Paige Miller suffered an eye injury in practice and that hurt us,” Arand said.
The coach said that the spirited work of the younger girls bodes well for next season.
“We’re losing Karissa and other top seniors to graduation but Paige, Liz Adams, Jessica Manca, McKenzie, Amanda Lutsock and Jessica Dunn are stepping up their level of play,” he said. “They’ve all learned quickly that moving the ball in intelligent ways means victory.”
Highlights of the season include the first-ever win over King’s, beating Granite Falls and Lakewood and improving from last year’s 5-9 record.
“The girls showed some real improvement this year, and with the core group of returnees,
I expect good things in 2009.”
He said his assistants — junior varsity coach Katy Watson and goalie coach Gary Peterson — were a huge help in the team’s success on the soccer field.
