Tuesday's Prep Girls Soccer: W.F. West Secures No. 3 Seed With Win Against Centralia

The Bearcats needed a win to secure their seed heading into the district tournament, and four first half goals did the trick in a 5-0 win against Centralia on a cold evening in Swamp Cup girls soccer action at Tiger Stadium on Tuesday.

W.F. West locked up the No. 3 seed out of the Evergreen 2A Conference into the District IV 2A girls soccer tournament and will take on Ridgefield Saturday at 7 p.m. in their opening game of the tournament.

“It feels good, I’m proud of the girls. We started this league season a little slow with two straight losses so I’m happy with the way they kind of redeemed themselves after that bad week,” W.F. West Allen Anderson said. “It always feels good to beat our rivals. It was a great game, a good opportunity to get a lot of girls good minutes and it was fun to watch them, it’s cold out. Overall, I’m real happy with the girls.”

Madi Mencke started the scoring for the Bearcats in the 10th minute. Elizabeth Patana hurled a throw-in into the box and was gathered up and buried by Brianna Powe in the 20th minute.

Bella Landers scored in the 29th minute, after a corner kick was cleared to her just outside the box and she fired it over the crowd of players in the box and into the bottom right corner of the net. Becca Deskins scored in stoppage time of the first half for a 4-0 lead at intermission.

Cameron Sheets scored the final goal of the night in the 61st minute on a shot from well outside the box.

“We really worked together as a team today and everything came together for playoffs,” Sheets said. “(The game plan was) definitely to be offensive and just to work those combinations in the final third. It was amazing, definitely great first season for my freshman year.”

W.F. West goalkeeper Kristin Jendryka made two saves in the clean sheet. Centralia goalkeeper Bailea Brown made 10 saves in her final prep soccer game.

“They played hard, they played with some purpose, some energy. It was definitely a back to forth game, it wasn’t a snooze fest like our last game. It kind of reminded me of the second half of the first game, the (Rotary) cup game we played, but this time, it was just the whole game,” Centralia coach Henry Gallanger said. “We talked a lot about how they wanted to play it. Did they want to sit back or did they want to go after it and they wanted to go after it so we set it up so they could go after it and we had some chances and they just didn’t go in the goal.”

Centralia ends the season 1-14 overall and 1-9 in EvCo games. Gallanger noted he is sad to see his senior class leave, including Brown, Aaliyah Corona, Makiah Harris, Jovannah Navarro, Carissa Kaut, Rebekah Robbins, Kupria Lapierre, Savannah Hankins and Taryn Salazar.

The Bearcats will begin the double elimination tournament this weekend against the Spudders. Ridgefield was 12-4 overall and 8-4 in Greater St. Helens League games.

“I want to say the last time I looked, they had a goal differential of 63-10,” Anderson said. “They’re one of the best teams in the state so we’re just going to have to work hard to prepare ourselves this week and go down there on Saturday and give them everything we’ve got.”

Aberdeen Absconds with Victory Over Warriors

ROCHESTER — The Bobcats took advantage of a Warrior miscue or two here on Tuesday on their way to a 4-2 victory in 2A Evergreen Conference girls soccer action.

Emma Green gave Aberdeen a 1-0 lead in the 16th minute before Rochester surrendered an own goal in the 21st minute to fall behind by a pair of scores. The Bobcats were able to take a 3-0 lead into the half after Emmy Walsh knocked in a goal in the 34th minute.

Charlize Gutierrez extended the Aberdeen lead to 4-0 in the 64th minute before the Warriors were able to get their offense going. In the 67th minute, Sufina Ahmath scored off an assist from Amerika Jones and less than a minute later, Jones scored an unassisted goal of her own.

Rochester attempted six shots on goal in the game while Aberdeen got up 11 on-target shots.

“Amerika Jones is always there, and Sufina as well. They both control the midfield. Amerika has an engine that doesn’t stop. Sufina is kind of that controlling force and keeps us in every game,” said Rochester coach Robert McFadden.

McFadden also pointed out the play of Payton Pekol and Gabby Ramirez on the defensive end. “They really stepped up on senior night,” noted McFadden. “I’m very proud of the girls and how they battled all season long.”

Rochester ends the season 2-13-1 overall and 1-9 in EvCo games.

Tenino Takes Down Hoquiam

TENINO — The Beavers kept their 1A Evergreen League record unblemished with a 3-0 win against Hoquiam in girls soccer action here on Tuesday.

It was a scoreless first half but Tenino got on the board in the 43rd minute on a goal by Grace Vestal with an assist by Brieanna Dell. Emma Barr pushed the lead to 2-0 in the 55th minute on an assist by Vestal. Dell completed the scoring in the 64th minute on an assist by Morgan Miner.

Tenino goalkeeper Abby Severse made two saves in the clean sheet. The Beavers outshot the Grizzlies, 12-2.

“We played good enough. We controlled a lot of the game. We knew they were going to come out energetic,” Tenino coach Kevin Schultz said. “If they won tonight, they would have clinched a playoff spot. They came out really fast and we weathered the storm early. Brie’s got an injury, other people stepped up well and when she got in the game, she made some things happen.”

Schultz also commended the performance of Vestal, recording her 18th assist of the season and noted her making things happen in the middle of the field along with Megan Letts. He also credited Alivia Hunter for playing great defense on Hoquiam’s best forward and shutting her down.

Tenino (14-0-1, 9-0) has clinched at least a share of the league title and will try to win it outright on Thursday, traveling to Montesano with a chance to earn the No. 1 seed into the District IV 1A girls soccer tournament.