WINLOCK — Adna was able to complete their defense of the Central 2B League girls soccer title here Wednesday night thanks to a 4-0 win over the Cardinals.
Winlock saw their chances take a big hit about eight minutes into the game when senior goaltender Cheleena Squibb injured her knee on a collision just outside of the keeper box. That play ended her night and forced Winlock to play their 8th grade goalie, Kiya Peppers, against one of the most potent offenses in the state.
“That was unfortunate because she’s such a hard worker and such a tough kid,” said Adna coach Juli Aselton. “You hate to see that, especially on senior night,”
With Squibb out of goal the Pirates put Peppers through her paces by posting 30 shots for the game. Brynn Arrington scored the first Adna goal in the 23rd minute after a corner kick was rebounded and passed back to her by Jordyn Swenson. Arrington then promptly arched another long kick into the goal to break the tie.
“That was beautiful. It was almost as far as the corner kick since she’d just stepped back in bounds,” noted Aselton. “That left foot, we’ve really come to depend on that over the last few weeks.”
Adna added two more goals before the intermission thanks to the accurate boot of Cierra Swenson. First Swenson found back net off of a pass from Payton Aselton in the 36th minute and then she scored again on a penalty kick in the 38th minute.
In the second half Faith Kennedy capped the scoring with a goal in the 62nd minute that was assisted by Zarine Walker.
“I was pretty impressed with the second half. We pretty much put in our younger girls and let them work things out and they’ve just improved so, so much,” said Aselton. She noted that Sadie Burdick played well moving up to a forward spot from her natural defensive station and the Kennedy twins, Faith and Kiyah, were both in the mix all night for the Pirates.
“I believe that seals up the league title, which is pretty exciting to have that already but we know that next week is still a league week,” said Aselton. “We’ve got to follow through for the rest of the season.”
As for Winlock, Ziese lamented the loss of his senior goalkeeper Squibb but commended his team’s effort against long odds.
“It was actually a pretty good game, Adna was really knocking it around,” said Ziese. “I have to give my credit to a girl named Elizabeth Wolfe who did everything for us. She just had a great game, going up and getting things in the air, just so that our 8th grader wouldn’t have to deal with so much.”
Adna (14-0) will host Toutle Lake on Monday, while Winlock (3-12) will travel to Toledo on Monday.
Life Christian Falls to Tigers
NAPAVINE — The Tigers showed an understaffed LIfe Christian team little mercy here Wednesday night as they rolled to a 9-1 victory in Central 2B League soccer action.
Five girls scored for Napavine on the night, with Sydney Burdick and Chloe Stewart turning in hat tricks. Stewart also added a trio of assists to the Tigers’ unrelenting effort.
Gabby Garcia and Xoee Pope posted the bookend goals for Napavine in the 8th and 64th minutes, respectively. In between those two scores the goals came in bunches for Napavine. Makensee Taliaferro-Bouge posted a goal in the 19th minute and then Stewart punched in her first goal one minute later before Burdick notched her first score in the 24th minute.
After the intermission Napavine got right back to offense with Burdick scoring in the 41st and 46th minutes and Stewart scoring in the 43rd and 48th minutes.
Napavine coach Emily Boettcher noted that Life Christian had only ten players available for the game so they were one player down for the duration of the contest.
“We did have a leg up on them, unfortunately, but that allowed us to focus on some of our weaker points,” said Boettcher.
In addition to Stewart’s three assists, Taliaferro-Bouge and Pope each had passes that led to scores and Halee Williams had two assists.
“I’m pleased with everyone’s effort. They worked on their passing and I was really happy with that tonight,” said Boettcher. “Chloe's a playmaker, and Halee is a playmaker even though the stats might not show it. She had four shots on goal herself.”
In total Napavine got up 20 shots on goal, while allowing just five shots on defense.
Elysse Loyola scored the Eagles’ lone goal in the game in the 57th minute.
Napavine (6-8) will play at Ocosta on Monday.
Note: Kalama won 3-0 over Toledo on Wednesday in Toledo.
