The Centralia girls soccer team’s best season in years came to a close Thursday in Cowlitz County, with the Tigers losing 1-0 to Woodland in the pigtail matchup of the 2A District 4 tournament.
“Overall, the girls played well, the energy was high, they played with urgency and I was really proud of that,” first-year coach Luis Magana Reyna said. “We just couldn’t score. It’s been the same story for the past three games, where we felt like we dominated in possession or at least maintained most of the possession and outshot our opponents.”
Woodland netted the lone goal of the afternoon in the 22nd minute on a play the Centralia back line thought should have been blown dead. Goalkeeper Braylee Blankenship went for a loose ball and — in the Tigers’ eyes — got ahold of it, only for it to be kicked out of her hands to a Beaver, who slotted it home.
“It was a cluster right there when that happened,” Magana Reyna said. “I couldn’t tell you… The AR didn’t raise her flag and the center ref didn’t say anything. They called it a goal.”
Aside from that, the Tigers dominated possession and had more than a couple open looks at goal, but the Woodland goalkeeper stood strong against everything Centralia fired at her.
In the first half, Centralia forced two turnovers inside the Woodland box, leading to point-blank shots for Jaslin Corona and Eva Reinitz, but both of their efforts were stopped.
Olivia Gruginski forced another save on a free kick in the second half, and in the waning moments of the match, both Jaslin and Anahi Corona snapped off shots that were parried away.
“We just couldn’t convert anything,” Magana Reyna said.
Centralia ends its season with a 9-8 record, having gone 6-6 in 2A EvCo play. The Tigers beat W.F. West for the first time since 2017, and made it back to the district tournament.
“I told the girls that now we have expectations,” Magana Reyna said. “The expectations for the season now is to put ourselves in this situation always, where we’re battling for a district championship or we’re battling for a spot in State. From now on, this is the expectation, and they’re happy about that. They’re proud.”
The Tigers will graduate Isabelle Gruginski and Anahi Corona, losing two key pieces from the past two seasons going forward.
“They had a great season and were the leaders of the team this year,” Magana Reyna said. “I’m proud of their leadership, I’m proud of how they always gave me their input on things that we needed, overall for the wellbeing of the players. They were great leaders.”
