TUMWATER — Much of the group that took Tumwater to its best girls soccer season in program history are back this year. And they aren’t content with the third-place finish at State they came home with.
“They have some definite goals based upon how things went last year and a bit of their dissatisfaction with how the Final Four went for them,” Tumwater coach Brett Bartlett said.
First, though, the Thunderbirds have to get through their regular season and the 2A EvCo, and they took the first step to doing that Tuesday at home in a dominant 5-0 win over Centralia.
It’s the 15th consecutive shutout 2A EvCo regular season play for the T-Birds, a streak that dates back to October 2021; Tumwater’s winning streak in such games goes all the way back to 2017.
The T-Birds (3-0, 1-0 2A EvCo) got things started quickly, with Kayle Pope getting on the end of a cross and firing the first shot on target of the game into the net in the fourth minute.
Two minutes later, Lucy Bergord benefited from a similar play from the left wing into the box, and made it 2-0.
“With this group, it’s just about ‘What do we need to do to continue to develop our game?’” Bartlett said. “Move the ball quickly, move the ball in and out, be patient across the back as we’re moving it.
“What worked well for us today is that we switched the ball and moved it around, and then tried to combine around the corner going to goal, giving us the opportunity to cross to the top of the box.”
From the opening kickoff, Centralia parked the bus and threw numbers behind the ball, and after the two opening goals, the move paid off, with the Tigers (1-2, 0-1 2A EvCo) getting in the way of every successive chance in the nick of time and bodying runners off the ball.
“We were playing pretty defensive,” Centralia coach Luis Magana Reyna said. “I watched a lot of (Jose) Mourinho and Diego Simeone before this game, just to see what I could take from them.”
The problem with that, however, was that with just one high striker up the field, Centralia had little to do with the ball once it won it other than clear it back to the Tumwater defense.
And the one time the Tigers spread upfield a bit with possession, the T-Birds made them pay, with Ava Jones receding from the wing to the middle of the field on a counter and sending a perfect ball up to Emalyn Shaffer in the 25th minute, who made it 3-0 on a one-on-one.
“Pace is part of our game,” Bartlett said. “We have a lot of kids that are extremely fast and good on the ball, so we’d be foolish not to use that to our advantage. We like to figure out ways to get those kids on the ball in good spaces. We realize a lot of teams are going to drop off on us, and we’re working on some ways to deal with that.”
Shaffer scored again in the second half, and Reese Heryford made it 5-0 in the 59th.
Centralia keeper Braylee Blankenship finished seven saves; Tumwater outshot Centralia 14-0, including two shots that clanked off iron.
Magana Reyna also gave props to freshman Dina Silva, who stepped in for her first start on the back line against the reigning district champs and helped keep the defense moving.
“There were a lot of things I learned, but there were good takeaways I took from this game,” he said.
Tumwater is slated to head across the freeway to Black Hills for a Pioneer Bowl matchup Thursday, while Centralia will host Rochester.
