For the second season in a row, the Centralia girls soccer team’s season came to an end in the district pigtail game.
Centralia and Mark Morris went to penalty kicks deadlocked at one, but the Monarchs came out on top 3-2 in the penalty shootout to advance.
After the final Centralia penalty kick sailed past the net, Centralia coach Luis Magana gathered his team. As the Monarchs celebrated within earshot, Magana took a moment to address his team.
“I just wanted to thank them,” Magana said. “I’m happy we gave ourselves a chance.”
The Tigers had to come back just to force extra time, as the Monarchs struck first on one of the last plays of the first half.
At halftime, Magana moved Olivia Gruginski up from the center-mid to try and generate more chances, and it paid off early in the second half. After a Mark Morris shot clanked off the crossbar early in the second half, the Tigers ramped up the pressure.
Gruginski worked well with Eva Reinitz and Ana Blankenship in the attacking third.
“The chemistry was there,” Magana said. “You could see them finding each other.”
The pressure paid off in the 51st minute, when Gruginski fired a shot that deflected off of the keeper’s hands and into the net.
The next 20 minutes played out like the first 40, with chances coming few and far between for both sides. Mark Morris ramped up the pressure in the final minutes, though, and the Monarchs got a couple of solid shots at net.
Braylee Blankenship kept the game tied with two saves, and she made two more saves in extra time, including a point-blank one with less than three minutes to play.
“I’ve seen her develop to be such a great keeper,” Magana said. “She kept us in this game, and I’m proud of the season that she had.”
After the game, Magana said that even though the final outcome this season is the same as last, he could see how the team has grown.
“It all goes to the hard work the girls do in the offseason,” Magana said. “It took us to PKs. It was 50/50.We’re changing the culture here at Centralia … We’re becoming a competitive program. It doesn’t happen overnight.”
The Tigers finish their season 6-8-3. All four captions — Blankenship, Gruginski, Jaslin Corona, and Bella Gomez — will graduate, as will six others: Reyna Maldonado, Megan Tokstad, Jocelyn Navarro, Yarexy Mejia, Daisha Moch, and Sahara LaPierre.
