TOLEDO — Nearly a month after needing two overtimes to determine a winner in their first meeting of the season, Mossyrock and Toledo met again.
Points were nearly impossible to come by for both teams for much of the night, but the Riverhawks were able to score enough late to grind out a 27-22 victory.
“That was a struggle,” Toledo coach Randy Wood said. “They showed some heart. They showed some resiliency.”
Early on, the score resembled one of a spring softball game. The two teams combined for just seven points in the first quarter, and at halftime, it was 12-5 Toledo. After three, it was still just 14-12.
During those three quarters, there were several prolonged stretches without points from either team. Mossyrock took nearly seven minutes to get on the board in the first, and Toledo had a four-plus minute stretch without points in both of the next two frames.
Mossyrock’s Maci Rashoff hit a three to give the Vikings their first lead of the game at the beginning of the fourth, and they were holding on to a 19-18 lead with 1:43 to play.
A three from Hope Gould put the Riverhawks back in front, and after Mossyrock tied it at 21, Gould hit a pair of free throws to give Toledo the lead with 22 seconds left. After several free throw attempts in the final 20 seconds, the final buzzer sounded.
“They just kind of clawed their way back into it,” Wood said. “It’s a young team … Like I told them in the locker room; ‘We’re a young team. Some nights we're gonna win ugly, and sometimes we’re gonna lose ugly.’ Tonight was just one of those games we won ugly.”
This is far from the Riverhawks’ first strong defensive performance. During the Riverhawks’ seven-game winning streak, they’ve allowed just 21.9 points per game.
“The girls are buying in, they’re working hard, and they’re talking and communicating,” Wood said. “That’s the key on defense.”
Ryah Stanley finished with a game-high 11 points to lead Toledo, and she also grabbed nine rebounds. Hope Gould scored nine points and added seven rebounds, while Kailea Lairson-Young hauled in 10 rebounds and scored three points.
On the other bench, Mossyrock coach Nick Rashoff was disappointed with his team’s offensive showing, but he isn’t worried that it will become a trend.
“The effort is there, for sure,” Rashoff said. “You still gotta execute what we’re trying to do. It’s a good learning experience.”
What made the loss sting a little more for the Vikings is that it was the first game in the girls’ C2BL season. Every matchup between C2BL teams prior to Friday went down officially as a non-league contest, leaving just eight league games.
“You gotta show up every night from here on out,” Rashoff said. “It’s gonna be a dogfight every game … We’re just gonna have to be more mentally tough at times when things aren’t going our way offensively.”
Toledo (9-3, 1-0 C2BL) will head to Centralia for a non-league matchup on Monday, while Mossyrock (5-6, 0-1 C2BL) will return home to host Winlock on Wednesday.
