Though the two-day tournament in Thurston County was deemed a club tournament, the Tenino High School girls soccer program brought a 15U and 19U squad and performed well enough to earn some hardware.
At the annual Kick in the Grass tournament in Olympia, both of the Beavers’ teams left with second place medals after both dropped championship matches on Sunday.
For the 19U group, one that featured four guest players in alum Paisley Garcia, Rochester grad Kailyn Black, Yelm grad Salma Diaz and Centralia grad Anahi Corona, they ran into a familiar foe.
Montesano was in the field and the two Evergreen League rivals met in the last pool play contest on Sunday morning and came away with a 3-1 win. They clashed again in the first place bout and it was over – literally – before halftime.
The Bulldogs jumped out to a 4-0 cushion, then before the opening half whistle, Tenino goalkeeper Gracie Sweet suffered a concussion on a play where a Montesano player ran directly into her.
“(She) came in with a reckless challenge and (Sweet) was not going to be able to play after that,” Tenino head coach Dave Montgomery said. “At that point, this game is done, let’s just call it now.”
Kyla Watson scored the lone goal for the Beavers in the final two games of the weekend. They upended Shelton 3-0 then drew with OP Flash 3-3 and Crazy Cleats 2-2. They rallied down 3-0 at halftime to draw against the Flash. All of this coming with a 12-person roster, meaning they only had one sub available.
Callie Mickelson scored three goals for the tourney while Corona and Diaz combined for three goals.
For the 15U team, they played just two pool play matches, but dominated Rochester Youth Soccer 7-0 and the NK Serpents 3-0. A year ago, the Beavers fell to the Serpents 2-1.
Tenino fell to FC Edmonds 4-0 in the title game on Sunday. Still, Montgomery was more than pleased afterwards.
“One thing I realized later on is that of the 17 kids registered, all but four could have played in a U14 team,” he said. “We had so many kids that were playing above what they could be playing. It was a really positive experience. We were able to get some incredibly valuable minutes.”
Emily Battin ended the weekend with six goals while Kylie Gonia added three goals and three assists for the Beavers.
W.F. West gets plenty of tests out east
The Bearcats trekked to Eisenhower High School in Yakima for a two-day tournament against some of the better teams in the state. They went 1-1-1 in their group, then lost in the semifinals to 4A Eisenhower 2-0.
That ended up being the only team they lost to all weekend. Eisenhower beat them in the group stage.
“I thought we improved from yesterday to today as we got more comfortable,” W.F. West head coach Kevin Schultz said. “This was the first time all summer we had this group of players.”
W.F. West drew with Selah 0-0 and beat East Valley 1-0 on Saturday. Wyatt Rogerson scored off a cross from Ashlen Gruginski to break the scoreless match. Goalkeeper Alabama Ropka posted the two group stage clean sheets.
