ADNA — Glance at the record and the Adna High School girls soccer team sits winless at 0-4. Delving deeper tells a different story.
The only loss to a fellow Class 2B program was the Pirates’ second match of the season. They have played two 3A schools and one 4A in the non-league portion of the schedule.
“I like the non-league games; that is good practice,” Adna senior Lydia Tobin said. “So we can play the harder teams like Napavine and (Onalaska), the teams we’re going to see in districts. It is really nice.”
Despite a handful of knocks on the door in the second half, the Pirates never waltzed in and dropped a 3-1 contest versus 3A Evergreen (Vancouver) on Tuesday night on their home field.
The losses are becoming closer and more competitive against the higher classification teams. The season-opener facing Kelso was an 8-0 blowout. Adna scored two second half goals to make the contest against Yelm closer, 4-2.
Tuesday featured a 1-1 tie midway through the opening half. The Pirates have been encouraged by steps of growth in prepping for the C2BL opener next week at Winlock. They face W.F. West’s junior varsity team on Wednesday.
Adna gets three more non-league matches this fall – all in October and just one at home.
“When we have that pressure against us, once we get into our league, have we got it cleaned up so we take care of business,” Adna head coach Patrick Richardson said.
After the Plainsmen struck first in the seventh minute, Adna responded on a throw-in. Lilly Wellander, on the other side of midfield, threw the ball to Tobin, who back-passed it to the feet of a streaking Sophie Hagseth.
The junior forward took a couple touches and nuzzled the ball into the bottom left corner in the 18th minute.
“We always hope to connect passes like that,” Tobin said.
Evergreen (Vancouver) responded in the 31st minute on a dump off pass from Gabby Suarez to Milana Pechink for the go-ahead goal. Miriam Madrigal provided insurance on a long through ball by Claire Fabionar right by a pair of Pirate defenders.
In all four setbacks, Adna has allowed at least three goals each time.
“I’m not overly worried about it,” Richardson said. “We just had some rough moments like tonight, we had an off night. It is making those adjustments. We had opportunities to protect the score.”
The Pirates turned up the aggressiveness and controlled possession in their attacking-third for 20-plus minutes in the second half. They had three total corner kicks, a through ball that eventually turned into a shot on goal that was wide.
Then Wellander launched a shot just outside the 18-yard box, sailing a touch to the right of the post.
Wellander and Tobin are the lone seniors on the roster. A year ago, Richardson knew what he had and built the team around plenty of experience. Now, with a much younger group, he’s still piecing together the puzzle.
Still, he believes the victories are coming sooner rather than later.
“How is this going to start to flow?” Richardson said. “It is getting the wrinkles ironed out a little bit. I think it is coming along.”
