G-Prep girls gain sweet revenge, defeat Richland

Paybacks are sweet.

Just ask the Gonzaga Prep girls soccer team, which dispatched the host Richland girls 1-0 in a shootout Saturday advance to the State 4A semifinals.

“It’s our turn now, and that’s all that matters,” said sophomore midfielder Caitlin Davis, whose shot gave Prep its first-ever trip to the 4A semis. “I knew it would be head-to-head. I almost was willing to guarantee a shootout.”

The Bullpups (16-1) will play Stadium in the 4A semifinals at 8 p.m. Friday at Harry E. Lang Stadium in Lakewood.

The Bullpups came in looking to make amends for a 2-0 loss to the Bombers (16-2) in last year’s state quarterfinal, and their vision was realized after Davis buried the game-winning penalty kick to give Gonzaga Prep a 3-1 shootout edge.

The Bullpups win came in spite of the absence of starting forward Sarah Jennings and all-GSL defender Jenny Tracy, who turned an ankle in pregame warmups.

“There are few teams in the United States better than Richland. We knew we needed every single player to beat them,” said Prep coach Christian Birrer. “There were players out there who hadn’t played in three or four games. As the game wore on our fitness began to catch up to us, but we gutted it out.”

The run of play was characterized by strong defense, which neutralized both teams’ top scoring threats – Sarah Dean for Prep and Hayley McCoy for Richland. The Bullpups’ best scoring chance came on a high shot by Therese Agnew in the 35th minute, but Bombers keeper Lyndsee Landon tipped it over the crossbar. Richland, which outshot Prep 19-7, took advantage of the tiring Bullpups players to fire 10 shots over the final 10 minutes of regulation and both overtime periods, but none found their mark.

Despite a strong game in goal by Landon, the Bombers brought in freshman Jamie Arthurs to handle the shootout. She responded to the first shot by Dean by diving to her right for the save. Then McCoy punched her first shot for Richland past Elise Kuhar-Pitters, and it looked like Richland held the key to their own destiny.

But the Bombers’ next two shots went wide, and – after Alex Butler and Jessica Miller converted for Prep – Kuhar-Pitters saved the fourth to set up Davis’ game-winner.

“I think everybody was pretty stoked after (my save), but after one miss it went downhill from there,” said Arthurs.

“It’s amazing,” said Prep’s Alex Butler of the win. “I can’t think of a better way to go out my senior year, especially since Richland is ranked so high.

“Honestly, we’re not the best team. We just want it so bad, and we wanted it more than them today.

“I think we can win (state). If we want it bad enough, we can take it.”

“The kids are devastated,” said Richland coach Chris Smith. “We played well enough to win. We had some opportunities but just didn’t finish them.” “

2A girls

Brittney Casper scored a pair of goals for Connell in a 3-1 win over visiting Riverside.

Connell (17-4) advances to the 2A semifinals in Lakewood on Friday and will take on Naches.

Riverside, which got its lone goal from Kristen Svennungsen, finished the season 15-5.

1A/B boys

St. George’s finally broke through against Northwest Christian and it couldn’t have come at a more opportune time.

The Dragons won a shootout 3-0 to beat the Crusaders 1-0 at Lampson Field in Richand and advance to the state semifinals Friday at 6 p.m. at Curtis High School in Tacoma.

It was the Dragons’ first victory against the Crusaders in four tries this season.

Tim Annan, Tad Johnson and Forrest Orme made their shots in the shootout.

Goaltender Matt Jackson blocked two attempts by the Crusaders to seal the win.