The Tenino girls soccer team found itself in a halftime hole Monday thanks to a couple misplays and some bad breaks, and had nothing left to do but dig themselves out.
“We talked to them about how it was time to wake up,” Tenino coach Dave Montgomery said. “It was senior night, potentially our last game of the season. Time to wake up and not be zombies out there, and they really responded.”
The Beavers responded with two goals in the second half, and came away 3-2 winners over Hoquiam in their last home game of the regular season.
In the 50th minute, keeper Dakota Lees collected the ball in her box and punted it up to Callie Mickelson, who broke free down the wing and crossed it into Abagail Archibald, whose 12th goal of the season leveled the scoreline at 2-2.
“That was awesome,” Montgomery said.
The Beavers (8-7-1, 2-5 1A Evergreen) stayed on the front foot looking for the go-ahead goal for the next 20 minutes, but couldn’t quite crack through, racking up 17 shots.
“It kind of felt like it was only a matter of time, except we were running out of time,” Montgomery said.
The blow finally landed five minutes from full time, when a scrum in the Hoquiam box off a throw-in fell to Natalie Lucero, who set up Holly Thoren for a short shot into the net.
Hoquiam, which came into the night winless in league play, stole an opening goal in the 16th minute on a breakaway. Mickelson tied things up in the 36th minute with her 18th goal of the season, but just when the Beavers thought they would go into halftime level, the Grizzlies came back for another goal.
In between all that, Tenino had a goal off a rebound called back for hitting the football goal post instead of the soccer goal crossbar in the build-up, and a second chance erased by a contentious offsides call.
That put the Beavers in a rough spot at the break, unluckily down by a goal, with possibly just 40 minutes left in their season.
“I told the girls, ‘We’ve got to make our own luck,’” Montgomery said.
The Beavers made their luck in the second half, giving their seniors — Lees, Archibald, and Kendra Cutlip — a win in their final home game.
Tenino was set to take on Eatonville in their season finale Wednesday, but that game may be in doubt.
