St. George’s sweeps 2B/1B state soccer championships

SUMNER, Wash. – Three seasons ago. Mark Rickard was scrambling around trying to piece together a regular-season schedule for his newly formed girls soccer program at Saint George’s.

Now the Dragons coach begins a new search. This time trying to find the perfect location for the team’s shiny new trophy.

Mary Neder found the back of the net late in the first half, keeper Cate Caproricci came up with a big save late in the contest and St. George’s captured its first State 2B/1B championship in just its third season of competition with a 1-0 victory over Kalama at Sunset Chev Stadium on Saturday.

“Coaches always try to come up with the perfect thing to say before games and I just told them the trophy doesn’t matter. It’s all about the team and playing for each other,” said Rickard, whose squad was forced to play JV teams out of the Greater Spokane League and North Idaho during the Dragons’ inaugural season in 2014. “You could see that on the field when they played. They just have a ton of heart.”

And a lot of youth as St. George’s will graduate just one senior, captain Alison Day, leading to the idea that this could be the first of many title match appearances for the Dragons.

“All things point to a very strong next two years,” Rickard said. “Hopefully, we will be able to grow our numbers and build on this. The bar has now been set very high for this program.”

The Dragons featured four freshmen, including Grace Harrill, Kaitlyn Vera, Sydney Wilcox and leading goal scorer Lydia Bergquist, and three eighth-graders, including Alli Dixon, Cambrie Rickard and Zadie Rigsby, on this year’s title team.

“The whole season long we just kept building and building, and we peaked at the right time,” Rickard said. “Despite our youth, we just came out to play soccer every game.”

For the second consecutive game, Neder scored on a PK, beating Kalama keeper Mary Morrell in the 39th minute to produce the match’s only goal.

“That gave us a momentum shift going into the half,” Rickard said. “We were able to settle down and it gave us the opportunity to play with just a little lead and we got the job done.”

Neder also successfully connected on a PK in the Dragons’ 2-0 win over Liberty Bell in the semifinals.

“We actually practice PKs a lot this year. So, I wasn’t nervous,” Neder said. “I just put it in the same place every time. Fortunately, both went in.”

Neder nearly made it a two-goal advantage for the Dragons minutes into the second half, but the junior’s free kick from 25 yards out bounced off the left post.

St. George’s outshot the Chinooks 7-4 and 5-3 on corner kicks but needed a late Caporicci save on a Kalama free kick to preserve the victory.

“I felt that was one of Kalama’s last shots at it and ‘Cap’ made a huge save there,” Rickard said. “I couldn’t be prouder of the effort this team has given all season long.”

Boys

Mitchell Ward scored twice, including 38 seconds into the match, to help St. George’s successfully defend its State 2B/1B championship with a 2-0 win over the Crosspoint Warriors.

Saint George’s, a year after graduating 11 seniors from last year’s title squad, becomes the first program to win back-to-back crowns in the dual classification. The Dragons also captured the State 1A title in 1999 and were state runners-up in 2003, 2007 and 2012.

St. George’s held a 15-6 advantage in shots, including a 7-1 lean for shots on goal, with Ward taking a match-high seven attempts.

The senior found the mark twice with his first goal coming mere moments into the contest, giving the Dragons a lead they would never surrender.

Ward added his second goal in the 49th minute, taking a shot from the top of the box and firing it to the low left side of the goal past the keeper.