In the midst of a history making run, the Kentwood High girls soccer team was bit by an old nemesis Friday night at Harry E. Lang Stadium in Lakewood.<\/p>\n
In the midst of pouring and swirling rain, the Conquerors fell to Skyline in a shootout 7-6, resulting in a 1-0 Class 4A state semifinal loss. It\u2019s the third time in the last five years the Conquerors have dropped a state soccer game via a shootout.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey played such a great, great year,\u201d lamented Kentwood coach Aaron Radford. \u201cFor us to receive our first loss (of the season) in the semifinals is an amazing feat to begin with. To end up in another shootout and not have it go our way again \u2026 my heart just goes out to these girls to have to be put in that position.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n
Ninth-ranked Kentwood (16-1-4) played to a 0-0 tie with seventh-ranked Skyline through regulation and two five-minute overtimes, forcing the contest to be decided by a shootout. During a shootout, each team receives five attempts.<\/p>\n
Once the teams took the field for the deciding process, a hard, sideways rain drenched the stadium turf.<\/p>\n
Tied 4-4 during the first slate of attempts, Kentwood received a golden opportunity when goalkeeper Courtney Johnson batted down the attempt by Skyline\u2019s Madi Barney.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tough,\u201d Johnson said of the scenario while brushing away tears. \u201cBut the pressure is not on (the goalkeeper). I like the pressure, but it\u2019s not the best situation to end games like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Skyline goalkeeper Tina Vargas proceeded to block the following attempt by Kentwood\u2019s Mackenzie Meyers, sending the game into a golden-goal shootout. During the golden-goal shootout, each team is allotted the same amount of attempts until the tie is broken. Skyline\u2019s sixth attempt, a shot by Brittanee Randle, sailed high over the crossbar, giving the Conquerors an opportunity to secure the title-game berth with a score. However, the attempt by Kentwood\u2019s Sara Bindl also sailed high.<\/p>\n
Knotted 6-6, Skyline\u2019s Kayla Shim gave the Spartans the lead, nestling the ball in the back-left corner of the net. In the midst of a torrential downpour, the following shot by Kentwood defender Clarisa Hammer flew high over the goal, giving Skyline the 7-6 (1-0) victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cI honestly don\u2019t think it\u2019s a fair way to lose any game. It\u2019s hard to say we lost,\u201d Radford said. \u201cOn the other side of it, somebody has to win the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since Kentwood does not go through shootouts during the regular season in the South Puget Sound League, it had not taken part in one this season.<\/p>\n
Losing, particularly in such difficult fashion, was difficult to swallow.<\/p>\n
Is it fair to decide a game of such magnitude by a shootout?<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t think so, not when you\u2019ve played 90 minutes of soccer,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI\u2019m competitive. I love to win and hate to lose. We had a really good chance. Shootouts are not a fun way to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the loss, Kentwood still has one game remaining on the season. The Conquerors play Kamiakin (18-2-1) at noon on Saturday, Nov. 21 for the third-place trophy. Regardless of the outcome, the Conquerors already will have delivered the school\u2019s best-ever finish at the state tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been a really good season. We\u2019ve accomplished so much even though we didn\u2019t reach our ultimate goal of getting to the state championship,\u201d said Kentwood midfielder Kiana Kraft. \u201cWe still got so many school records.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of those records includes fewest goals allowed. The Conquerors entered Saturday night\u2019s contest having allowed just two goals all season. That number includes 18 shutouts.<\/p>\n
The Conquerors appeared primed to make it 19 shutouts, but simply couldn\u2019t find the back of the net. Skyline outshot Kentwood 16-6 during regulation and the two overtimes combined.<\/p>\n
Kentwood\u2019s best opportunity of the first half came in the 13th minute, when Rachel Bindl\u2019s free kick from 20 yards out sailed over the crossbar. The Conquerors essentially enjoyed the run of play through the game\u2019s first 20 minutes before Skyline methodically took the momentum. The Spartans entertained a pair of golden chances, one in the 23rd minute and another one minute later, both on corner kicks. Both attempts bounded around from five yards out, pinballed off several players before the Conquerors cleared the ball.<\/p>\n
While Skyline didn\u2019t dominate the run of play in the second half and two overtimes, it certainly controlled the tempo, outshooting the Conquerors 10-3 during the final 50 minutes. The Spartans did get two good looks in the first overtime, but were turned away both times by Johnson, one of which came on a diving grab.<\/p>\n
The number of attempts in the shootout was a bit of an anomaly, Radford conceded.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve witnessed eight before,\u201d Radford said. \u201cI\u2019ve never been part of one past five. And I\u2019ve never seen anything go 9.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the midst of a history making run, the Kentwood High girls soccer team was bit by an old nemesis Friday night at Harry E. Lang Stadium in Lakewood. In the midst of pouring and swirling rain, the Conquerors fell to Skyline in a shootout 7-6, resulting in a 1-0 Class 4A state semifinal loss. […]<\/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-9070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9070"}],"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=9070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9070\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9070"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=9070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}