NAPAVINE — At times this season, the Napavine Tigers have had a tendency of starting games slow.
Monday was no different, as the Adna Pirates controlled the ball and the pace of play over the first 20 minutes of the game.
The Tigers slowly started to flip the field, however, and a goal late in the first half gave them all the momentum they needed to cruise to a convincing 4-0 win.
“We’re slow starting,” Napavine coach John Bates admitted with a chuckle. “But we settled down. We had a game plan, and we stuck to it.”
Part of that game plan throughout the year is to occasionally take advantage of Maya Kunkel’s arm. Kunkel can launch throw-ins more than 20 yards, and at times, she’ll throw the ball directly into the box.
That’s exactly what she did in the 33rd minute, and the loose ball was knocked in by Grace Pancake to put the Tigers on the board.
“I tell her to aim for the tallest girl there,” Bates said, while adding that he doesn’t want her to take every throw in that they earn. “I mix it up, and it works.”
Hayden Kaut made it 2-0 just three minutes later to give Napavine even more of a boost going into halftime.
The Pirates, on the other bench, entered halftime down 2-0 despite feeling good about their overall play over the first 40 minutes.
“We came into this game knowing the pressure wasn’t on us,” Adna coach Patrick Richardson said. “So we were just gonna play free, and that’s usually when we play at our best … They got that first goal, and that kind of puts you back a little bit.”
The second half played out very similarly.
It didn’t take Napavine as long to score, as Ava Wilson and Kaut scored in the 49th and 50th minutes to double the advantage, but Richardson was still pleased with what he was seeing.
“It’s probably our best effort of the year,” Richardson said, while admitting the final scoreline didn’t reflect it. “We’ll take it.
At 3-2-1 in C2BL play, the Pirates (7-6-1) remain in the top four in the C2BL standings, which would put them through to the district semifinals if the season ended today. That would mean the Pirates would have to win just one of two district tournament games to get back to state.
Adna has already played all three teams ahead of them in the standings, losing to Napavine and Onalaska while tying with Toledo. Their final three games will be against teams below them in the league standings, beginning with Toutle Lake on Wednesday.
“It’s a whole new ball game come districts,” Richardson said. “You just walk in, finish the season, try to take care of business, and reset. Then we do what we do best and come out and play hard. That’s all we can ask for.”
Up next for the Tigers (10-2, 6-0 C2BL) is a matchup that will likely determine the league champion, as they’ll head to Onalaska on Wednesday. Both the Tigers and Loggers are 6-0 in league play. The winner would take a one-game lead and have the tiebreaker with just two regular season matches to play.
Bates didn’t say anything about looking ahead, instead choosing to celebrate Monday’s victory.
“The girls stuck to it and believed in themselves,” Bates said. “It was a great team win, and a great win for the school.”
