ELMA — One last match to rule the Evergreen 1A League for 2016. Montesano got the early goals and made host Elma chase it for the rest of the match.
Two goals in four minutes for the Bulldogs looked like a starting point for a Montesano-Elma slugfest on Wednesday night at Davis Field, but they turned out to be enough in the Bulldogs’ 2-1 girls soccer victory over the Eagles.
The Montesano victory clinched the outright league title and the league’s No. 1 berth into the District IV 1A tournament next week. Both Monte and Elma have qualified for the district tournament, with the Bulldogs earning a semifinals berth and the Eagles a knockout first-round berth.
“There was some pressure, because you didn’t want to play that Tuesday game, because it is loser-out,” Montesano assistant coach Rick Denholm said. “When you get the Thursday game, you have two matches to win one to get into state. That was big.”
“I thought we had opportunities early, but it came down to Montesano showed more (guts) than we did when they possessed,” said Elma head coach Scott Rockey. “They pressured us better than we were able to pressure them and we had a hard time moving the ball through the midfield. Did our match yesterday (against Hoquiam) affect us? It probably did. It didn’t help, I’ll be honest. This was a tight game.”
This was a tight, defensively played affair, just like most Montesano-Elma matches. However, there were enough chances to score early on to give fans of goal-laden soccer matches hope on a wet, but cold October night.
Elma’s Brooke Sutherby, Molly Johnston and Alicia Hook and Montesano’s Samantha Stanfield and Cheyann Bartlett had chances and shots on goal in the first 20 minutes. The flow was even, with both teams pressuring the rival’s goalkeepers throughout.
Then in the 25th minute, the tide turned crimson. With Elma’s defense keeping Bartlett and Lexi Lovell at bay 20 yards from goal, the ball found Bartlett with space. The senior midfielder sent a lofting chip shot toward goal and goalkeeper Holli Ray. Ray appeared to stumble a bit going back for the ball as it drifted into the left-side of the goal for the opener.
Three minutes later, Montesano made it 2-0. In traffic, senior Hannah Quinn sent a hard, speculative shot at Ray from 30 yards out. Ray tried to punch the ball away, but the ball glanced off of her gloves and went into the net.
“It didn’t hit off her gloves like she wanted it to; you’re trying to hit a moving target and it hit the wrong spot,” Rockey added. “Those were two hard shots, hard for goalkeepers to defend. It was a hard, grueling game.”
“We made one mistake at the end of the first half and we talked to the girls at halftime about controlling the midfield,” Denholm said. “That is how they were transitioning for chances on goal. We felt we needed to control the midfield to keep the quick exchanges and chances down.”
Elma got one goal back late in the first half. Senior Peyton Elliott released Hook on a run down the right side into the penalty area. From 15 yards out, she smashed a low shot that got underneath goalkeeper Haylee Perkinson for the 2-1 score.
After halftime, the goalkeepers — Ray and Perkinson — were busy orchestrating their defenses, but no more goals would be scored. Perkinson finished with seven saves on the night, while Ray scooped up five saves.
Today, Elma will finish its regular season with a trip to Forks. On Tuesday, Elma will host the La Center in a loser-out district match. On Thursday, Nov. 3, Montesano will play in a winner-to-state match.
