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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Bullpups claim District title


Sarah Dean, left, and Tara Cronin celebrate after Gonzaga Prep defeated University for the District 8 4A soccer championship. 
 (Jed Conklin / The Spokesman-Review)

Gonzaga Prep soccer players said they approached the District 8 4A championship match against Greater Spokane League champion University with nothing to lose. By winning 2-0 over the previously unbeaten Titans, they had everything to gain.

The minor upset assured the Bullpups (14-2) a week’s rest and spot in the state tournament as the region’s either No. 1 or 2 entrant. They host Big Nine Conference champion Richland Tuesday at 4 p.m. for the regional title.

There was another benefit as well for G-Prep, said coach Christian Birrer.

“This was supposed to be a building year with seven freshmen,” Birrer said. “Here we are the district champions for the third year in a row.”

U-Hi (15-1), by contrast, must win twice to qualify for state. The Titans host Mead at 4 p.m. Friday needing a win just to get into the regional. It will take another to win on Tuesday in Kennewick to qualify for a state road trip to Western Washington.

Mead (13-4) beat Ferris (11-5) 2-0 in the loser-out opener and earned the right to continue on.

G-Prep’s goals came early in each half. Sarah Dean’s well-placed shot came 12 minutes into the match.

The second, a couple of minutes into the second half, was a header by Tara Cronin off Dean’s long corner kick that carried past most of the players to Cronin on the far side of the goal.

Both Dean and Cronin seemed to turn up everywhere the ball was. Any number of Bullpups made things difficult on defense, even if U-Hi did get off more shots than its foe.

But the hero in the eyes of both coach and teammates was G-Prep’s last line of defense, junior goalkeeper Elise Kuhar-Pitters.

“All credit to U-Hi, they had some very good chances in the game,” said Birrer. “Elise made some amazing saves.”

Three separate times she punched Titans shots over the top of the goal and ensuing corner kicks couldn’t find their mark.

In the final 6 minutes of the match, Kuhar-Pitters smothered three other tough attempts on goal.

Against any other keeper, any of those shots would have gone in, Dean said.

“There’s nothing to it,” Kuhar-Pitters said, after first crediting G-Prep’s defense with making her task easy. “You’ve just got to stay focused and say the ball’s not going in. I kept telling myself that and it worked.”

The game was end-to-end action by both teams on a cool damp night at Spokane Falls Community College. Birrer’s concern was that scores could have come at any time from either team.

G-Prep’s passing was crisp and the Bullpups’ defense clung to Titans players like a hard-nosed, full-court pressing basketball team. It forced the Titans to resort to long shots that Kuhar-Pitters was able to anticipate and ward off.

Up front, Dean’s bursts enabled her to win balls first and ignite attacks. She scored on a 20-yard pooch shot over the top of U-Hi goalie Allison Seymour following her throw-in that was headed back out to her by the defense.

“I was amazed,” she said. “I’m used to practicing it against Elise and it never goes in.”

Cronin was omnipresent at both ends of the field. Not long after her header for the goal, she headed a ball out safely from the opposite end following a U-Hi corner kick. Ten minutes later, she fended off another Titans attack with her footwork.

“Everything was up and out because we were ahead 2-0,” Cronin said. “Everyone played well together. We had great defense from our center backs and our communication was absolutely great in this game.”

Mead 2, Ferris 0 (loser out): The Panthers (13-4) paced themselves with goals 4 minutes apart in the first half and Makenzie Swift made five saves for the shutout.

Angie Hughes put Mead on the board in the 35th minute with a header via Meghan Faulkenberry’s corner kick. Sarah Russell doubled her team’s lead on a nice individual effort after picking up a loose ball, beating three Saxons (11-5) defenders, and proceeded to score with a kick from 12 yards out.