ROCHESTER — They’ve gotten out to early leads and had to put on their rally caps. They’ve come close to winning not once, but twice this fall.
Practice makes perfect? Third time’s the charm?
Whatever cliche fits best, the Toledo High School girls soccer team was able to turn a competitive contest into a win, upending Rochester 3-1 on Thursday night in a non-league match at Rochester High School.
“The one thing I’ve learned as a coach is you can’t tell them what they did wrong, they need to have a solution and be positive,” Riverhawks head coach Horst Malunat said. “That’s my big thing with them is to make sure I give them a solution so they have a plan.
“So far, it has worked.”
From Class 3A Evergreen (Vancouver) in the opener to 2A R.A. Long last week and now 1A Rochester, 2B Toledo keeps testing itself ahead of a loaded league schedule. The Riverhawks have five more non-league games on the docket.
And only one of them is at home. In fact, they only have three home matches all season. Vital C2BL showdowns versus Adna, Napavine and Onalaska will be on the road.
“By proving them (wrong) on their home field would be pretty great,” freshman forward Xtyn Norberg said.
Malunat referred to the opening 40 minutes as “suffering together.” Toledo (1-2) struggled to pass or complete runs in the attacking-third. Despite five shots on goal to Rochester’s three, the two sides were deadlocked 0-0 at the half.
Onica Chase broke the ice with a 53rd minute penalty kick off a Warriors hand ball. Then in the 66th minute, Peyton Holter raced down the right side and fired a slow-rolling shot that bounced off the defender and into the net.
Norberg capped the three-goal second half with a shot off a feed by Grace Layton in the 80th minute.
“It is kind of the MO of this team and I call it we have to suffer together; I watch the suffering and you guys play the suffering,” Malunat said. “Through the adversity, we’re a completely different team in the second half. We did it together.”
“We learned that talking was what we needed to do and the energy level needed (to be higher),” Norberg added.
Those three goal scorers provide plenty of speed up top that causes defense to play on their heels. Norberg made an early statement to the rest of Class 2B.
“I feel like we could have the fastest (forwards) in 2B,” she said. “It’ll be one of our biggest strengths. We warm up to it, from the first half to the second half, we get the chemistry going.”
Still, Rochester head coach Matt Ashton felt the defensive four played well. What remains an issue for its roster is depth. A handful of girls are either out for an extended period of time or could return within a week.
“Maybe lift some of these girls up,” Ashton said. “No panic button yet.”
Kenna Pratt, who had three free kick chances on the night, connected on a corner kick right to the knee of Liz Hoover for the equalizer in the 64th minute. It was the Warriors’ only corner kick of the game.
Yet the tally was their first in three matches and just second in five straight losses. Rochester closes out the non-league against W.F. West on Tuesday.
“It is preparing us for league play, but it is frustrating," Ashton said. “We have the talent. Once we start doing that, it is going to show what we have.”
Toledo will host Friday Harbor in the first game against a fellow 2B foe. The Riverhawks felt like the underdogs last fall, but with the majority of the roster back in the fold, they want to be viewed as one of the favorites.
“It makes us a bigger family,” Norberg said.
