Kentwood High\u2019s Kiana Kraft has been a bit hesitant with her shot selection on the soccer pitch this fall.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday night at French Field, however, Kraft finally let it rip. The results were pretty much what Kentwood fans have come to expect from the two-time all-league midfielder. The junior standout found the back of the net twice, both times unassisted, scoring in the 57th minute and again in the 79th minute, leading the Conquerors past Kentlake 2-0 in a South Puget Sound League North Division match between top teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t been taking enough chances when I\u2019ve had the ball,\u201d said Kraft about her third and fourth goals of the season. \u201cFinally, I just decided I was going to shoot it and it paid off.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two teams battled to a 0-0 tie in the first half, though Kentwood (4-0-2, 14 points) controlled the flow of the game, keeping Kentlake (4-2-0, 12 points) from getting many good looks on goal.<\/p>\n
Kraft\u2019s first score, which came 17 minutes into the second half, was a bolt from 18 yards out. The shot sailed just high enough over the outstretched fingertips of Kentlake goalkeeper Savannah Wood.<\/p>\n
The Kentwood junior put the game away with one minute remaining, finding a seam on the right side, then pushing the ball past Wood on the left-side of the goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone has to work until the end,\u201d Kraft said. \u201cIt feels good to seal the deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kentlake, which hasn\u2019t qualified for the postseason since 2003, challenged the Conquerors throughout, but was unable to penetrate the stingy Kentwood defense. The Conquerors have yet to allow a goal through the season\u2019s first six games.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday night, that defense was as much a credit to Kentwood\u2019s starting defenders \u2013 Madison Fuller, Dana Wareham and Rachel Bindl \u2013 as it was the team\u2019s goalkeeping duo of Megan Walburn and Courtney Johnson. Walburn blanked the Falcons in the first half while Johnson did likewise in the second.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us to do that (defensively), to basically lock it off and not give them any kind of a hope in the final 15, 20, 25 minutes \u2026 that was just awesome,\u201d said Kentwood coach Aaron Radford.<\/p>\n
Kentwood has won three of the last four SPSL North titles and entered this season among the favorites. Kentlake, however, opened the season on a four-game winning streak and appears poised to jump into the upper half of the North.<\/p>\n
Tuesday night, however, the Kentwood defense wasn\u2019t about to let the Falcons take advantage of anything. The Conquerors outshot the Falcons 25-9. Kentlake\u2019s Wood, though she allowed the two goals, also made solid stops on a handful of point-blank attempts.<\/p>\n
During the second half, however, Kentwood tightened up the defense even more, allowing just five attempts, most of which came in the first 10 minutes after the break.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a frustrating one,\u201d said Kentlake coach Kyle Jones. \u201cYou have to credit their defense, but you have to discredit our lack of possession \u2026 we\u2019re not possessing the ball right now. We work on it over and over and over again, then we get under the big pitch under the lights and it\u2019s like a whole new game.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the win, Kentwood remained two points behind Tahoma (5-0-1, 16 points) for first place in the North. The Bears knocked off Auburn Riverside on Tuesday, 1-0. Kentlake fell to fourth place with 12 points, four points ahead of the Ravens (2-2-2, 8 points).<\/p>\n
The top three teams from the North earn automatic berths to the district playoffs. The fourth-place finisher from the North has to play in a playoff game to advance to the district tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll 11 of their players beat all 11 of our players,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI am extremely frustrated and disappointed right now. This isn\u2019t how we train, this isn\u2019t what we\u2019ve set our sites on this season and now we\u2019ve dropped two in a row. I don\u2019t just want to hang in games, I want to win them.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kentwood High\u2019s Kiana Kraft has been a bit hesitant with her shot selection on the soccer pitch this fall. On Tuesday night at French Field, however, Kraft finally let it rip. The results were pretty much what Kentwood fans have come to expect from the two-time all-league midfielder. The junior standout found the back of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-2172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2172"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2172\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2172"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}