It has been such a long wait for the Skyview girls soccer program to make it back to the state tournament.
That just made it even better for the Storm when this year’s match to qualify for state was over early Saturday afternoon.
Sheaffer Skadsen scored two goals in the first four minutes of the match, the Storm added another one before halftime, and Skyview cruised to a 4-1 victory over Gig Harbor at Kiggins Bowl.
“This was huge for all of us,” Skadsen said. “We knew this was our year to do it.”
The Storm have won the past five Class 4A Greater St. Helens League titles, but they had never been able to advance past this state qualifying match.
Until now.
The Storm will play in the 4A state tournament for the first time since 2002. Skyview will host Eastlake of Sammamish — the team that knocked out the Storm last year in the qualifier — at Kiggins Bowl, most likely on Wednesday.
Skadsen said she and her teammates figured this would be their time after playing so well together the past couple of years.
“We got here and we changed our mentality,” she said. “We’ve got to do it this year.”
Ileanna Zabaella scored later in the first half for a 3-0 lead, and Cassie Ripley found the net to make it 4-0 in the second half.
Gig Harbor scored a late goal to avoid the shutout, but that did not spoil the fun for the Storm.
After the recent history, those first two goals were so much bigger for the Storm than just the 2-0 lead.
“It’s nice. It’s relaxing. It took the weight off our shoulders,” senior Allie Townsend said. “But we had to think that it was zero-zero still.”
That was the discussion at halftime, as well, with a 3-0 lead.
“They have some decent forwards. We just had to shut them down,” Townsend said. “We had to make sure we all still played together.”
Skadsen’s first goal came off a pass from Brittany Wilson.
“It was something we talked about before the game,” Skadsen said. “We wanted to get the first touch, the first shot, the first goal. It was great to be the one who got to finish that.”
She credited the pass, as well.
“She always does a great job of supplying balls for us to finish,” Skadsen said of Wilson.
Same thing for the next assist, which went to Ripley just two minutes later.
“I was still on an adrenaline rush from the first goal. That goal could have been anyone, the pass was so good,” Skadsen said.
Brynne Silvey assisted on Zaballa’s goal, and Townsend got the assist on the final goal.
Goalkeeper Hannah Johnson was not tested much because the Skyview defense was so sound. She ended up with three saves.
