T-Birds Bounce Back, Take 3rd in State

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The Tumwater soccer team didn’t have long to dwell on its first loss of the season, and came right back to Shoreline Stadium in short order to blank Enumclaw 3-0 in the 2A state third-place match.

The finish is the T-Birds’ best in program history, in either girls or boys soccer.

“They wanted to finish strong, they wanted to send their seniors out on a good note, and set the table for next year,” head coach Brett Bartlett said.

Less than a day after falling behind against Columbia River — which went on to beat Sehome in the state title game later Saturday afternoon — Tumwater made sure there would be no similar slow start, with Regan Brewer slotting home the first goal of the afternoon in the 15th minute.

Senior Cierra Larson doubled the lead in the 20th minute, and sophomore Emalyn Shaffer made it 3-0 in the 40th.

“Our defense was really good, and our midfield really worked hard,” Bartlett said. ”That was the big difference, from today to yesterday. When our midfield works hard, everybody else really thrives off of that, and they were really putting in the effort today.”



At the back of that defensive effort, senior goalkeeper Sydney Woods pitched a shutout in her final match.

The T-Birds will graduate nine seniors from this year’s team, which goes down as the most successful to ever come out of Tumwater. But they’ll also return a hefty portion of their core, with waves of underclassmen featuring heavily both on offense and defense.

“These guys have already got it set in their minds that they belong there,” Bartlett said. “Their plan is to be back, and take the next step.”