VANCOUVER — It didn’t take a soccer aficionado to know the path for the W.F. West High School girls soccer team to pull off an upset on Saturday night.
New formation, new play style and taking advantage of the sliver of chances that were available. When the opponent is a powerhouse in Class 2A and the home of five state championships, all that matters is surviving for 80 minutes.
Maybe 10 more if required.
“Everyone was here to play to win,” senior center back Kenley Fragner said.
The Bearcats bobbed, ducked and weaved through a flurry of dangerous shots on target by Columbia River for 50 minutes. Then the dam broke.
So did their hearts.
Three goals in the span of four minutes in the second half put the top-seeded Rapids on cruise control and celebrated a 3-0 triumph over eighth-seeded W.F. West on John O’Rourke Field in Vancouver.
“They did everything we wanted in the first half and it is unfortunate the final soccer doesn’t show the effort and intensity they put in,” Bearcats head coach Kevin Schultz said. “I am hella proud.”
State title number six is two wins away for Columbia River, who has finished as the runner-up in back-to-back Final Fours. For the Bearcats (16-2-4), they departed the field with tears before the bounty of photos that were taken in front of the bleachers with one another and family members.
Their legacy was cemented with an Evergreen Conference regular season title, a tie for third place in the District 4 tournament and the first state tournament victory last week. And the 16 wins are the most since the 2012 group.
“The growth we’ve had is so incredible and I’m so proud of everyone,” Fragner said. “Everyone will look back on this season with nothing but joy. We will be remembered as a family.”
Very little lows were experienced this fall. From the summer tournaments, to beating Tumwater for the first time in over a decade, to the late winners on the road, to the record number of clean sheets and everything in between.
Schultz’s message in the final team huddle wasn’t about the season-ending setback. It was about the journey.
“The way they found ways to get things done,” he said. “They showed their toughness. Twenty years from now, they’re not gonna think about losing in the quarterfinal, they’re gonna think about the fun they had and the accomplishments.”
The match itself was a slugfest.
W.F. West came out in a 4-1-4-1 formation and stuck with it for the entire first half. Despite an early flick that was wide left, a run by River’s Remi Buckley which ended in a shot that just missed the far post and a beauty of a shot just outside the 18-yard box that never stayed up, it was knotted at zeroes.
The one threatening chance came in the 18th minute for the Bearcats, after a counter-attack led to a foul and Mirabel Burger lined up for a free kick. The Rapids cleared the ball away from the scrum to preserve the goose egg.
“You have to be able to turn the little moments that you get to attack into something fruitful,” Schultz said. “We weren’t going to be able to build and possess the ball.”
Whatever was said in the locker room, the messaging was to break up the second half into eight five-minute segments. Schultz kept yelling to win the next five minutes from the sidelines.
W.F. West won the first two. It fell apart in the third.
A foul by the Bearcats set up a free kick for River and Auva Brandt delivered it to the top right corner just over the outstretched hands of three-time All-EvCo keeper Charlee Nelson to break through in the 52nd minute.
Two minutes later off a corner, Ava Labrador won a scrum for the ball and scooted it past Nelson. And then another two minutes after that, Buckley got to a spot on the far post and didn’t miss this time to make it 3-0.
“We felt it sting; it sucks,” Fragner said. “Especially after the second goal I was like ‘Dang it.’”
In the end, the Rapids flexed their muscles when they needed to. The Bearcats never were able to create an opportunity in the field of play that put a scare in the All-District 4 quarterfinal.
Their two losses were to Ridgefield and Columbia River by a combined score of 7-0. Schultz does feel they have closed the gap, even a little bit, with the GSHL’s two premier programs.
“We’ve shown the ability to compete, now it has to be the consistency,” he stated.
It also marked the soccer book closing for Schultz’s first senior class he’s seen grow in front of his eyes for all four years. Nelson and Fragner are the headliners, but Taylor and Tanner Tobin plus Elise Caserta, Sami Baun, Lexi Vargas, Joelie Corey, Anabel Moeckel, Sienna Ames and Zoe Medel join the loaded group of seniors.
Most of them got to see the field for the last time.
“For them to turn it around and get to this point, shows the hard work they put in,” Schultz said. “They’re all great kids and I love them. What they’ve brought to this program, if anything else, is gaining other people’s respect. They earned the respect of their peers around the state.
“We have the talent to win games in the state tournament and be in the state tournament.”
Fragner still has bowling and softball season to come, but her soccer career turned from doing it for fun to a passion.
“It has grown to be so much more and it has surprised me, too,” she said. “This sport is so fun and I’m going to miss it.”
The talent coming back could be elite once again with EvCo MVP Mirabel Burger and OPOY Izzy Teeter returning as will stout outside back Addy Arthurs and midfielders Sophie Abbarno and Sable Bunker, amongst others.
There’s little doubt within the locker room that W.F. West can become a state tournament regular and chase a Final Four berth.
“I expect when summer time comes around, they’re gonna be ready to go,” Schultz said.
