East Valley qualifies for state with two 2nd-half goals

They’re seasoned. They’re tested. They’re unflappable.

Now they’re in the State 3A playoffs.

East Valley scored twice in the second half Saturday to defeat visiting Hanford 3-1 in a 3A regional match, avenging a 9-day-old defeat and setting up a showdown Tuesday at West Valley-Yakima (17-0-1) in the first round of the state playoffs.

The winner will advance into next weekend’s quarterfinals.

With a lineup that features seven seniors, three- and four-year starters all, the Knights were poised and confident on their home field against a team that had defeated them 4-3 last week.

“We have a set lineup that we’ve used all year,” EV coach Jeff Rose explained. “Going into that game my assistant and I put our heads together and tinkered with the lineup, and I think we over-thought the problem. This time we went with our regular lineup and everything went well.”

The Knights took a 1-0 lead at the 10-minute mark when senior midfielder Katie Storey waded through a melee in front of the Hanford net and drove home a pass from Lucy Giblette.

The Falcons answered 4 minutes later. Kasey Hostetler came loose at the top of the penalty area and fired a ball into the upper-right corner past goalkeeper Megan Como.

EV appeared to take the lead at the 22-minute mark, booting home a rebound off the Hanford goalkeeper. But match officials waved off the goal, claiming that the shot had been taken while EV was offside.

“We have the shot on tape and we looked at it at halftime,” Rose explained. “I still don’t know what they were calling on that play.”

What mattered was the fact that the Knights shrugged off the call, left the complaining to their coaches and parents, and kept their focus on the opposition.

“Our seniors have been through a lot,” Rose said. “Look, I’m the third coach they’ve had here in the past four years. They’ve played against some of the best Class 4A teams in the state during the regular season, and they keep themselves and the rest of the team focused and playing hard.”

Kaitlyn Laughlin scored the winning goal at the 56-minute mark, looping a high-arcing shot toward the Hanford goal. The ball dropped in front of keeper Lacey Golden and bounced over her outstretched fingertips and into the goal.

Giblette added an insurance goal 4 minutes later, ripping a free kick from just inside the end line off a diving Golden for the goal.

2A: Riverside 1, Pullman 0 (SO)

The Rams made all five shots in a shootout to edge the Greyhounds for the 2A District 7 title that determined seeding in the state playoffs.

Riverside (13-4) will host the District 6 No. 2 seed on Tuesday at 1 p.m. Pullman (12-5) travels to the District 5 No. 1 seed, also on Tuesday. State quarterfinals are next weekend.

Riverside’s Britney Paul, Krysten Svennungsen, Kim Fischer, Tracy Bowen, Terri Dalnes all made their shots in the shootout.

Riverside defeated Pullman three times this season by 1-0 scores.