SHORELINE — Trailing by three goals early in the second half, the Ridgefield girls soccer team didn’t hang its collective head.
The opposite happened. The Spudders started to believe they belonged among the best teams in the state.
Ridgefield’s rally fell short in a 3-2 loss to Shorecrest in the Class 2A state semifinals Friday.
But afterwards, the Spudders weren’t dwelling on a first half where they played tentative and were pushed around.
For the final 20 minutes, Ridgefield had Shorecrest staggered.
“We just started to believe that we could actually do it,” sophomore Taryn Ries said. “We could the whole time. But we started to believe in ourselves, relax and play how we know.”
Ridgefield has assured itself its best ever finish. The Spudders will play for third place at noon Saturday against Ephrata.
But in its first trip to the state semifinals, it took Ridgefield three quarters of the match to adjust to the higher intensity of the final four.
“I told them if they’re going to be upset about anything, it shouldn’t be that they lost,” Ridgefield coach Robby Trimbo said. “It should be that it took them 60 minutes to realize they can actually play at this level.”
Shorecrest scored in the 16th and 28th minutes during a first half in which the Scots outshot Ridgefield 8-2.
“They definitely came out a lot more physical than us,” Ries said.
Playing on its home field at Shoreline Stadium, Shorecrest went ahead 3-0 in the 56th minute on Meghan Wicken’s second goal.
Ries scored in the 63rd minute to begin the comeback. Ally Fox hit a perfectly paced forward pass that set up Ries one-on-one with the goalkeeper. The sophomore calmly knocked a low shot into the net for her team-high 20th goal.
“Once we got the first goal, they got a little belief and started to think ‘we can do this,’ ” Trimbo said. “The first half, it was entirely the opposite direction.”
Ridgefield maintained pressure until a second breakthrough came in the 72nd minute. Kara Klaus tapped in her seventh goal of the season after a goalmouth scrum.
That set the stage for a frantic final eight minutes. Ridgefield’s best chance came with five minutes to play, when a Ries corner kick caused another goal-mouth scrum. But Shorecrest cleared the ball away.
After the final whistle, there were tears on Ridgefield players’ faces that lingered into the post-match huddle. But it didn’t take long for Trimbo to add a dose of perspective.
“There’s only four teams left in state, so by any measure it’s still a success,” he said. “There’s no way we’re showing up tomorrow and treating it as a throwaway game. We’re going to go back to the hotel, lick our wounds and get ready.”
SHORECREST 3, RIDGEFIELD 2
Ridgefield (18-3-1)
Goals (assists) — Taryn Ries (Ally Fox), Kara Klaus (unassisted). Goalkeeper saves — Sarah Kaufman 3.
Shorecrest (19-3-0)
Goals (assists) — Sophia Viviano (unassisted), Meghan Wicken (unassisted), Wicken (unassisted). Goalkeeper saves — Kate Wiper 1.
Halftime — Shorecrest 2-0.
