Monday's Girls Soccer: Toledo Comes Out on Top in Tussle With Winlock

WINLOCK – When it comes to a good old rivalry game there’s bound to be a little proverbial hair pulling as overly-familiar opponents scrap it out for an advantage.

Here on Monday night Toledo and Winlock resorted to just that sort of tit-for-tat combat for a full 80 minutes until Toledo had cemented a 2-0 victory in a key Central 2B girls soccer matchup. Although the game had largely been decided, with only a few minutes remaining on the clock, one player from each team earned a yellow crowd in the final minutes as competitive tendencies continued to flare.

“The girls are always talking smack about Winlock and Winlock is always talking smack about Toledo and it’s only a five or ten minute drive or whatever so they always know it’s going to be the battle of the best side of I-5,” said Toledo coach Noel Vasquez. “It’s always going to get chippy. The girls like it and they always get really excited for this game and sometimes they get a little emotional like they did at the end pulling hair, but it is what it is. We’ll have to discuss that tomorrow at practice.”

Winlock coach Brian Ziese agreed with his counterpart from across Interstate 5.

“I think it was just a crazy thing,” Ziese said. “I think there at the end they were just getting frustrated. Maybe a girl said something. I don’t know. It’s just one of those things.”

In the early going Winlock looked poised for a good offensive night until Toledo amped up their defensive approach.

“We started a little slow but they were able to figure it out,” said Vasquez. “They had possession probably for the first ten minutes and a couple of shots before we did. But eventually we were able to figure out how to slow it down and after that we started pressing for the rest of the game.”

Briza Gallegos busted up the tie in the 9th minute with a goal that was assisted by Rose Dillon. The game then settled into a rut for the next forty minutes until Dillon picked up her second assist of the night with a pass that set up a goal by Maryssa Peters.

“I was pretty pleased, especially with Rylan Richardson and Grace Tauscher. I mean Rylan was really moving the ball well on the outside and Grace, combined with Rose and Marina (Smith) in the middle, they were just moving the ball exceptionally well,” said Vasquez. “There were just so many combinations. It was really good to see and I hadn’t seen that the whole season before tonight.”

Dillon, a freshman midfielder, said her teammates were excited for the rivalry game and made sure to carry over the finer points they’ve been working on in practice during the first half of the season.

“Normally in practice we work a lot on crossing and just having people there and just those perfect assists to get goals in. They were going in tonight, it was great,” Dillon said. “We were really looking for the win tonight, just to get another win under our belt.”

Goalkeeper Kaylee Veigel picked up six saves on the night in order to preserve the shutout for Toledo.

On the other end Toledo was able to fire a total of 25 shots, with 16 of those on goal. Vasquez noted that he was able to play his bench for a 20 minute stretch in the second half without any discernible drop off in play. That scenario left him proud of both his starting and reserve units.

“Our biggest motivation is getting every girl on the bench in there,” said Vasquez. “They kind of looked at the girls on the bench and said, ‘Ya, I hate seeing you guys on the bench. Let’s go score another one so coach can put you in there.’”

While Winlock managed just six shots on goal they did have several girls who turned in inspired performances. Goalkeeper Cheelna Squibb was able to stuff 23 of 25 shots booted her way by Toledo and Ziese lauded the passionate play of seniors Azhia Camps and Makayla Allbritton.

“I think Azhia had a great game,” said Ziese. “Makayla too, she’s a senior and she gave it her all. She went all out.”

In the end, Ziese said his team just wasn’t able to conjure the forces needed to get a leg up on Toledo.

“We just didn’t come out with that fire. Being a home game, and it’s basically the playoffs in away because if we win that we’re above them. Now we’re playing catch up,” he lamented.

A note of intrigue from the Battle of the Cowlitz is that Ziese was Vasquez’s high school coach at Rochester High School where they once achieved an undefeated season together.

“Once I got this job I told him it’s not just a school rivalry but, I guess you could say it’s like a student to his master just trying to battle that out,“ Vasquez said. “It feels good when I get to go against him because I kind of have an idea of what he’s going to do.”

Toledo (3-4) will host Napavine on Wednesday, while Winlock (2-6) will play at Onalaska on Saturday.

Tenino Opens League Play With Win Over Elma

TENINO — Brieanna Dell scored two goals and the Tenino defense was tough for all 80 minutes and change to lead the Beavers to a 3-1 win over Elma in an Evergreen 1A League girls soccer match here on Monday night.

“I’m really pumped, they played really well. I know this game meant a lot to them, this team knocked them out last year in a winner-to-state game,” Tenino coach Kevin Schultz said. “I’m really proud of them because this is our fifth game in 10 days and they did everything we asked them to do.”

Megan Letts got Tenino on the board in the 22nd minute with an assist from Morgan Miner. Dell scored her first goal in the 28th minute on an assist from Rhian Mathis.

Elma scored in the 34th minute by Kayli Johnson with an assist from Jillian Bieker to cut the Tenino lead to 2-1 at halftime.

The Beavers put the game away in the 47th minute on Dell’s second goal of the game on an assist from Courtney Dodge.

Schultz was pleased with the play of Charlie Letts and Kaylee Schow, locking down the forwards of Elma and not giving them any room to operate on the attack.

Tenino (7-1, 1-0) travels to South Bend on Thursday to face the Raymond/South Bend combined squad in a league game.

Ocosta Edges Napavine

NAPAVINE — Ocosta scored a goal in the first three minutes and held strong for the rest of the game to secure a 1-0 win over Napavine in a Central 2B League girls soccer match here on Monday.

Napavine coach Emily Boettcher was pleased with the performance of Xoee Pope as sweeper, playing calm and collected while making some big stops for the Tigers.

“They played much better the second half. They were just slow to start, because of that, Ocosta capitalized on that,” Boettcher said. “They fought and tried to comeback, they never gave up. We just couldn’t get it in the back of the goal.”

Napavine (3-4) travels to Toledo on Wednesday for a C2BL match.

Adna Sails Past Toutle Lake

TOUTLE — Adna’s Payton Aselton netted a hat trick to lead the Lady Pirates to a 7-0 win over Toutle Lake in a Central 2B League girls soccer game here on Monday.

Aselton scored in the 5th minute for an early lead. Zarine Walker scored for the Pirates in the 26th minute and Kiyah Kennedy scored two minutes later for a 3-0 Adna lead at intermission.

Alyssa Dougherty scored in the 42nd minute and added another goal in the 52nd minute with an assist from Aselton.

Aselton scored in the 61st minute and completed the hat trick in the 66th minute for the final goal of the game.

“We got everybody in the game. They played really good, we’ve got a few injuries we’re healing up,” Adna coach Juli Aselton said. “It was just a good game to rest a lot of those girls, got all the players in. It was a much better game tonight. Toutle has gotten better too, they’ve done a really good job.”

Adna (7-0) travels to Onalaska on Wednesday for a C2BL match.

Note: Onalaska won 5-0 over Life Christian in Onalaska on Monday.