ADNA — During the first half of Adna’s playoff match against Raymond-South Bend, it seemed that the field was tipped in the Pirates’ direction.
In the second half, the pitch seemed to be slanted in the same direction. The only problem for the Pirates? The two teams switched sides.
After taking a 2-0 lead into halftime, Adna’s defense held off an RSB push in the second half to seal a 2-1 win in the first round of the 2B District 4 Tournament on Monday.
"(RSB) obviously made an adjustment on the field,” Adna coach Patrick Richardson said after the game. “We had to adjust to that. We weren’t really doing a clean job with it, but we did what we had to do to get the job done.”
While the offense did have a few scoring chances in that second half, their best work came in the first.
In the first 20 minutes, several Pirates took turns peppering RSB keeper Dakota Bale with shots, and early on, Bale was up to the challenge. She even saved a penalty kick in the 24th minute to keep the game scoreless.
Adna broke through minutes later, however, as a Bailey Naillon shot from the right side of the box sailed over Bale’s head and into the left side of the net to make it 1-0.
The barrage of chances continued, and the Pirates drew another foul in the box in the winding moments of the half. Lilly Wellander stepped up and struck it cleanly past Bale to double the advantage.
“Things click when we get going,” Richardson said. “We’ve been kind of in a lull the last few weeks offensively. We started moving the ball around and we looked like a completely different team.”
After halftime, the Ravens responded instantly. Less than 60 seconds into the second half, Jaylee Capps burst down the right side and scored from almost the same spot that Naillon did in the first half.
“In that second half we came out feeling good that we had that lead and kind of got caught on our heels a little bit,” Richardson said.
The Ravens began pushing hard for an equalizer, with their best chance coming in the 65th minute on a penalty kick of their own.
Jordanne Moon was able to save it and quickly covered up the rebound, squandering that scoring opportunity.
“Jordanne came up big for us on that PK save,” Richardsons said. “That was really key for us.”
While the second half wasn’t the ideal put-away half that Richardson was envisioning, he was pleased with the way his team rallied to hold on to the lead.
“There were different moments where different people stepped up,” Richardson said. “It's nice to be able to see that out of the team throughout the game, that there’s so many different pieces clicking at different times.
Looking ahead, the Pirates will have their hands full, as they’ll travel to top-seeded Kalama on Thursday. The Chinooks haven’t lost a game all season, tying twice in non-league play and posting a 10-0-0 record in league play, including a 9-0 win against Adna just two weeks ago.
“We just didn’t know what hit us a little bit then,” Richardson said. “As long as we can stay in the game and give ourselves a chance, that’s a huge part of it.”
A win would clinch a spot in the district championship match and clinch a berth at the state tournament, though a loss wouldn’t be season-ending. If they fall, they’ll move to the third-place match, which will be a winner-to-state game on Saturday.
