The Tumwater girls soccer team, which has run nearly its entire season in control of everything, found itself in tense and uncharted waters Tuesday at home in the semifinals of the 2A District 4 tournament against Ridgefield, but rallied to win in a marathon shootout after exiting overtime still tied at 2-2.
The win clinches a return to the state tournament for the T-Birds, who will host Columbia River in the district final Thursday.
Tumwater scored in the 23rd minute off of a corner kick, and led 1-0 going into halftime. The T-Birds doubled their lead out of the break, but gave up a goal — their first goal surrendered this entire season to a fellow 2A school — in the 67th minute to bring the lead back to one goal.
Then as the clock wound closer to stoppage time, the Spudders earned a penalty kick, and promptly converted it to tie things up at 2-2.
Extra time wasn’t enough to find a game winner, so the match went back to the penalty spot — where it would stay for awhile. After 15 rounds back and forth of makes and misses, with the shootout card flipping back over after the 11th frame, Tumwater finally took the match on a Mia Cuoio make to punch its ticket and continue its run.
