2017 All-Area Girls Soccer: Adna’s Aselton, Tenino’s Dell Highlight All-Area Squad

Payton Aselton and Brieanna Dell are both high-scoring underclassmen and, in year where younger players took over the pitch, the duo split MVP honors on The Chronicle’s 2017 All-Area Girls Soccer team.

The All-Area team features just four seniors and two juniors. Five sophomores made the team and two freshman burst onto the scene to make the squad.

Helping Adna to the State 1B/2B semifinals for the fifth consecutive season, Aselton was a midfielder that put in work on both ends of the field.

“I thought she played great this season. She had to step up and be a leader and she really did a good job of taking control on the field with positive influence,” Adna coach Juli Aselton said. “She got some confidence in all those free kicks she was making and, I think that’s going to help her out for her select team also.”

Aselton, the Central 2B League’s Offensive MVP, scored 13 goals with seven assists and four penalty kick goals as Adna took fourth in state.

“It was more spread out. Lots of teams had goals. For MVP this year, (the coaches were) looking at an all-around person,” Aselton said of the C2BL’s All-League meeting, during which the MVP vote was conducted. “So while I knew she would do that for us, I did not know she would be the top scorer of our team at center midfield. We relied on her a lot.”

Any local club soccer fans would have seen Dell in action before the freshman made her Beaver debut in September. Tenino coach Adam Barr was anxious to get her on the field.

“I knew what I was getting into with her, and I was excited to have her on the team. I coached her in soccer when she was little and said ‘You need to go play on a more competitive level,’” Barr said. “She was great with us and just what the team needed up front.”

Dell scored 20 goals with four assists this season, despite teams taking notice of her talent early on and gearing their defenses to slowing her down.

“They usually put at least two or three players on her if she had the ball in their half,” Barr said. “Montesano worked really hard trying to shut her down (in the teams’ three meetings).”

Joining Dell on the All-Area squad was teammate Lannie Dowies.

The senior forward scored seven goals with five assists, and improved her ability to stay onside.

“She was really good at reading the field,” Barr said. “She was really what our team needed in the left wing spot. It’s going to be a hard position to fill without her there.”

Dowies has committed to playing soccer for Lower Columbia next year.

Pirate sophomore teammates, and sisters, Cierra and Jordyn Swenson also made the team. An aggressive forward, Cierra scored 10 goals with three assists.

“Cierra used her speed and skills to go around people, and we used that a lot,” Aselton said. “She’s just such a go getter. She likes to go hard on the ball which can get her in trouble a couple times, but you can’t teach aggressiveness.”

Jordyn, a defender, used her speed and ball-handling skills to push the ball at opportune times. She scored a goal and had three penalty-kick goals.

“We could use her in a lot of different ways and used her speed to bring the ball up and make runs and she’s scored on that before,” Aselton said. “She’s a go-getter and not afraid to get down go after the ball.”

Winlock’s Cheleena Squibb was the All-Area goalkeeper. Though Winlock’s season wasn’t as good as hoped, Squibb was excellent in net for the Cardinals. She recorded 243 saves in 16 games, including making a whopping 55 saves in a 3-0 loss to Life Christian.

“She always worked so hard and was one of hardest working girls on our team. Her development was steps and bounds from the year before,” Winlock coach Brian Ziese said. “She did keep us in all the games or we would have been down even more goals. She gave us a chance to win games, and that was a big help for us.”

The Evergreen 2A Conference had five players make the team this year, including W.F. West’s Kiara Steen and Lauren Tornow. Steen was one of two seniors on the team, and anchored the midfield for a young Bearcat squad. She scored a goal and added an assist, but her impact was far greater than the stat sheet.

“She was huge. She was without question our leader on the team. In training and on gameday, she was the only player that played every minute of every game,” W.F. West coach Allen Anderson said. “She continued to get better. I think you combine that with her work ethic, and she’s just a tremendous player.”

Tornow scored 20 goals and three assists for a Bearcat team that made the District 4 tournament. She used her technical abilities to beat defenders and score goals.

“She was someone who, this summer, I knew right away she was going to be a really special player for us. She’s very athletic, she has really good technical ability and good touch on the ball,” Anderson said. “She can finish with her left and her right. Her goals were split evenly with what foot she would finish with. Her biggest development this year was understanding how to play the forward position.”

Centralia landed two players on the team: Anastasia Ulrigg and Alayna Miller. Miller scored 16 goals and was a big part of the Tiger offense this season.

“Our players all knew she was a huge piece to our offense and knew she would work hard in areas and go get it,” Centralia coach Henry Gallanger said. “She’s a pretty dangerous piece. I’m happy with how she came on throughout the season.”

Ulrigg, a midfielder, dictated the pace of play for the Tigers. The junior is expected to take on more of a leadership role for Centralia next year.

“We considered her the anchor of our midfield. She did a good job playing box-to-box and jumping into the attack for us,” Gallanger said. “They were big this year and the nice thing is we’re getting them both back.”

Rochester senior defender Hunter Hahn, meanwhile, was an EvCo first-team selection and a wall on the back line.

“She started off in the center-mid and we decided to move her back. Once we did that, it helped us out,” Rochester coach John Hayes said. “She cleaned things up in the back for us and she played really solid. She’s extremely tough and played three years on varsity. She was definitely a team leader, a spark. She’s going to be tough to replace.”

The final two players on the team were Napavine’s Becca Snaza and Sydney Burdick. Snaza, a senior, was a big part of the Tiger defense.

“She was my first line of defense, and it’s a big responsibility,” Napavine coach Emily Boettcher said. “She started out as sweeper and she did phenomenal. A few of the games, I had to put her on specific players, and she saved our butts quite a few times.”

Burdick was the Tigers’ leading scorer.

“She scored several hat tricks. There were a few games where she scored most, if not all, of the goal. She was a huge force up there,” Boettcher said. “We’d play the ball forward and Sydney would more likely than not beat the defenders to the ball.”

With nine players returning in 2018 season, the girls soccer season will be as competitive as ever next September.