The Montesano High School girls soccer team kicked off its season in similar fashion to the style of play that led the Bulldogs to a school-best fourth-place state finish last season, by simply overwhelming its opponent.
Montesano (1-0 overall) got a pair of goals from both senior forward Lilly Causey and returning all-state first team forward Mikayla Stanfield in breezing to a 5-0 victory over Chelan in the season-opener on Friday in Montesano.
Be it first-game jitters, new players meshing together or a bit of both, neither the Bulldogs nor Mountain Goats generated much consistent progress through the midfield over the first 15 minutes of the game.
The Bulldogs began to find their footing and produced the first goal of the season when Sam Roundtree sent a cross in toward a charging Stanfield. The reigning 1A Evergreen League MVP got a foot on the ball but the shot was blocked by the Chelan defense. Stanfield’s persistence paid off, knocking in the rebound for a 1-0 lead in the 17th minute.
RYAN SPARKS | THE DAILY WORLD Montesano forward Mikayla Stanfield looks to get past Chelan defender Joslynn Simmons (3) during Monte’s 5-0 win on Friday, Sept. 2, 2022 at Jack Rottle Field in Montesano. Stanfield scored two goals in the season-opening victory.
The game remained 1-0 over the next 10-plus minutes, with Monte getting the better of possession time and field position, but not producing many dangerous scoring chances.
That all changed in the blink of an eye on a spectacular play from Montesano goal keeper Riley Timmons.
On what would turn out to be Chelan’s best offensive chance of the game, a low, dangerous shot was sent toward Monte’s junior keeper at a sharp angle across to the far post. Timmons dove to her left to deflect the ball away from harm and quickly sprang up to hustle down the rebound and start a Montesano counter-attack.
The ball eventually ended up on the foot of Causey, who made an eye-catching juke past the Chelan keeper for Monte’s second goal.
Causey was back at it again a few minutes later when she received the ball approximately 20-yards out, pivoted to her right and ripped a low shot just inside the near post for her second goal in three minutes time.
“The energy (from Timmons’ save) got our adrenaline going,” Causey said of Monte’s goal outburst after Timmons’ save. “When I made that first goal, that was important for me and again, it gets the adrenaline going. I just feel like I can do it all over again. So I just tried to get back out there as soon as I could and not waste any time.”
The Monte scoring parade continued.
Stanfield netted her second of the game with barely a minute elapsed in the second half to make it a 4-0 game and Addi Kersker found the back of the net on a 20-yard free kick from the left hash to give Monte the 5-0 win.
“Until you get into the real season, that’s when you have to gel together,” Montesano head coach Fidel Sanchez said of his team’s play early in the contest. “It’s different practicing for 10 days and then having a game. So it was good to see that early outburst of goals. If you can score that many early on that sets the tone for the rest of the season, which is good for the girls.”
Montesano outshot Chelan 14-4 with a 9-3 shots on-goal advantage.
Stanfield led Monte with five shots while playing at both the midfield and forward positions in the match.
The Bulldogs offense that had six different players record a shot in the game, lending credence to Sanchez’s claim that this season’s iteration of the Bulldogs possesses multiple players that can play multiple positions on the field.
“It allows us to move pieces around in different spots,” he said. “We can put players in different positions. This year, out of any of the years I’ve been at Monte, we have more players that can play in more positions than just one. So I can move players around and see different looks. … And that’s what you saw today. We were able to move people around and see what’s working. We found out a lot of good things.”
Monte’s JV team also won on Friday, beating Cashmere JV 6-0.
Chelan 0 0 — 0
Montesano 3 2 — 5
First half — 1, Montesano, Stanfield (Roundtree), 17th minute. 2, Montesano, Causey, 31st minute. 3, Montesano, Causey, 33rd minute.
Second half — 4, Montesano, Stanfield, 42nd minute. 5, Montesano, Kersker, 72nd minute.
Cashmere 1, Montesano 0
Playing its second game in less than 24 hours, Montesano lost to Cashmere 1-0 Saturday afternoon in Montesano.
No further information available for this game at the time of this writing.
WOMEN’S COLLEGE SOCCER
Grays Harbor drops two at NWAC Friendlies
Grays Harbor College opened the season with a pair of non-conference losses at the Northwest Athletic Conference Friendlies Aug. 23-24 in Tukwila.
GHC (0-2) lost 7-0 to Bellevue on Aug. 23 followed by a 7-2 loss to Lane College on Aug. 24.
Against Lane, the Chokers trailed 5-0 before Gabriela Sanabria scored an unassisted goal in the 53rd minute of the contest.
Down 6-1, Lindsi Campos scored GHC’s second goal in the 81st minute.
“It was not the start we were hoping for, but we saw some good things in our team this week,” GHC head coach Pablo Rodriguez said. “Things we can work and improve on for the next game.”
Bellevue 1 6 — 7
Grays Harbor 0 0 — 0
Grays Harbor 0 2 — 2
Lane 4 3 — 7
GHC scoring — Sanabria (unassisted), 53rd minute. Campos (unassisted), 81st minute.
Chokers downed by Highline
GHC fell behind by five goals in the first half en route to a 9-0 loss to Highline on Friday at the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila.
Highline (2-0 overall, NWAC West) outshot GHC (0-4 overall, 0-2 NWAC West) 22-3 in the match.
Highline’s Kayla Ness recorded a natural hat trick in the contest, scoring the first three goals of the game.
Coupled with an Aug. 31 forfeit to Lower Columbia, GHC falls to 0-2 in the NWAC West Region.
GHC is scheduled to face South Puget Sound at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the RAC in Lacey.
Grays Harbor 0 0 — 0
Highline 5 4 — 9
