CAMAS — On a dreary Saturday afternoon, it took some time and a little halftime encouragement from the coach for the Camas girls soccer team to find a spark.
But in the end, the Papermakers’ playoff match against visiting Inglemoor was a dominating 3-0 victory at Doc Harris Stadium.
Camas (17-1-1) used second-half goals from Amanda Shi, Alyssa Tomasini and Anyssa DeVera to return to the state tournament for the 11th time in 12 seasons.
The Papermakers will host Lake Stevens in the round-of-16. The game will likely be played Tuesday evening.
Despite outshooting Inglemoor of Kenmore 10-1 in a scoreless first half, the Papermakers generated only one real chance.
“I just thought the energy was low. And I didn’t feel good about it,” Camas coach Roland Minder said.
He delivered that message to the team, then took a moment to challenge senior team captains Amanda Shi and Mason Minder.
“He pulled us aside and said, ‘You guys need to get your team ready. Get the energy going,’ ” Shi said.
In addition to an energy boost, the Papermakers needed to respond to physical play from Inglemoor’s aggressive defenders. So the coach inserted Shi at center forward for freshman Maddie Kemp to provide more strength to fight for the ball. Less than three minutes into the second half, Shi pounded in a rebound when a shot from Hannah Taie hit the crossbar.
“It was a right place, right time kind of thing,” Shi said. “Hannah hit a beautiful shot, it ricocheted and I thought ‘Oh my gosh. It’s right here’ and I put it in.”
The play started with some good work by Tomasini on the left side of the 18-yard box to win and keep possession. She was able to drop a pass for Taie to strike from about 20 yards.
Four minutes later, Tomasini provided the finish for a 2-0 lead after the ball moved right-to-left across the penalty area. A Rylee McDonald header was flicked on by Shi to Tomasini with room to put the ball away.
“When I flicked it, I knew that Alyssa and (Sabine Postma) were both over there,” She said. “I figured one of them will get this. One of them will put this in.”
The final goal was provided by DeVera from the penalty spot after Kemp was brought down while dribbling in the right side of the penalty area.
Camas finished with a 20-2 edge in shots, Inglemoor goalkeeper Natalie Dierickx made 10 saves, and three Papermaker shot hit the crossbar.
Last season the Papermakers missed qualifying for state for the first time in a decade. That disappointment has motivated the upper classmen on the 2015 squad.
“This year we were determined to go to state,” Shi said. “We have a lot of upper classmen this year. Our attitude is, let’s make up for last year. Let’s go far this year.”
