Prep girls soccer: Pirates, Loggers overcome slow starts to extend state streaks

TENINO — It took the Adna High School girls soccer team 10 minutes to find its footing. Onalaska needed a wake-up call within the opening seven minutes.

For the two C2BL programs that suffered heartbreaking losses in the semifinal round of the Class 2B District 4 tournament, they all of a sudden were staring at their streaks of state tournament appearances ending.

In the span of under 48 hours, the Pirates and Loggers went from sadness to jubilation.

First half goals from Bailey Naillon plus Lydia Tobin fueled Adna to a 2-1 triumph over Ocosta, then Onalaska scored four unanswered goals to dispatch Raymond/South Bend 4-1 in winner to state games at Beaver Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

“I told them at halftime I was pretty impressed with how well they stayed calm and didn’t change anything, didn’t panic,” Loggers head coach Christopher Van Clifford said.

It marks 13 consecutive seasons qualifying for state for the Pirates and seven straight for the Loggers. They’ll join Toledo and Napavine in making up 25 percent of the 2B state bracket that begins with first round games on Tuesday.

All four of them will know their opponents on Sunday.

“They continue to play for each other and that’s been the biggest benefit of this group to keep us going,” Pirates head coach Patrick Richardson said. “It makes me really proud for what they’ve done.”

Onalaska (12-5-1) struggled to generate chances in the semifinal round and even with a second half push, it was held to zero goals for the first time since mid-September. It didn’t hold an on the field practice on Friday.

Rather, it was a 30-minute conversation between coaches and players.

“It was in their head how they’re playing,” Van Clifford said. “Just come out and play like they know how to and relax. Keep them focused. They understand they have the ability.”

RSB got on the board first on a lofted goal off the foot of Mary Loza in the seventh minute. The Loggers opened up the attack in the final 30 minutes of the opening half and were rewarded in the 34th minute.

Top striker Kaiyah Sandridge unleashed a strike to tie the match, timing a run that would have been offside, but the ball deflected off a Raven defender. Then four minutes later, Yuliana Escalera gave the Loggers a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

Those two added goals in the 54th and 65th minutes, respectively. Escalera also had an assist on Sandridge’s second goal.

“She’s come on strong this year,” Van Clifford said of Escalera. “I pushed her pretty hard and she looks fantastic out there.”

Onalaska’s back line never let RSB break it down after the opening goal and Emily Hicks made a pair of crucial saves. Van Clifford believes this version of the Loggers is more “complete” heading into state.

Which leads him to believe they can compete with mostly any team that qualifies.

“Sometimes at the 2B level, there’s a couple positions you have to give up a little bit, put a good athlete out there and let them cause trouble,” Van Clifford said. “This year, we don’t have that. We’ll be competitive.”

Adna (11-7-1) started on its heels in the first 10 minutes against Ocosta, fending off an early attack. Then the Pirates settled in and got on the board thanks to a 23rd minute goal from Bailey Naillon.

Naillon has emerged as another option for Adna, adding to her responsibilities of distributing passes to Lydia Tobin and others. Now, she’s the one taking some chances.

“No one was down in the dumps from the other night, it was just getting our feet back under us and going again,” Richardson said. “She’s (Naillon) is figuring out the right angles to take that as the season’s gone on, those things have started clicking.”

Tobin struck in the 36th minute to double the Pirates’ cushion. Ocosta turned up the pressure in the final 10 minutes and scored in the 77th minute. The Wildcats had extra time due to a couple of their players suffering injuries after 80 minutes.

Once the final whistle went off, Adna celebrated another trip to state.

“We had to adapt and did what we needed to do and that was our most important piece,” Richardson said.

It has been three years since the Pirates have won a game in state, bowing out in the first round each time. Richardson has plenty of confidence in the 2024 group to end that streak.

“There’s been a lot of cross-state matchups that show where everyone kind of stacks, so it’ll be interesting to see where things end up,” he said. “We’ve got a group that can compete with (mostly) anybody. The field is more level this year.”