King’s Way Christian and Seton Catholic find themselves in familiar situations following Thursday’s semifinals of the Class 1A District 4 girls soccer tournament.
The host Knights cruised to a 3-0 victory over Elma to reach the championship game for the third straight year.
The Knights (14-1-1) take on Montesano on Saturday in a rematch of last year’s district final. KWC won that matchup 3-2 to take the title for the second year in a row.
“We’ve won the district championship for the past two years, and we want it again,” said Knights coach Tina Ellertson. “It’s an honor and an opportunity to showcase ourselves and this school.”
The Cougars, meanwhile, lost 2-1 to Montesano in Thursday’s first game to drop into a winner-to-state matchup Saturday against Elma.
Seton (11-5) found itself in the same spot last year after falling to Monte in the semis, and it bounced back to qualify for state for the first time ever by beating Eatonville.
“Hopefully, we can do it again Saturday,” said Cougars coach Amanda Chase.
King’s Way Christian 3, Elma 0 — Sophomore MacKenzie Ellertson scored a pair of goals and assisted on Payton Pulicella’s 45th-minute strike to lead the Trico champion Knights back to state for a third straight season.
“This feels so good,” said MacKenzie Ellertson, the reigning league MVP who upped her goal total to 36 for the season. “We’re ready to keep working. I thought we did great tonight, and we’re ready to keep that going.”
King’s Way knocked two shots off the crossbar in the game’s first 10 minutes before Ellertson broke the ice by beating a defender 1-v-1 at the top of the penalty area and blasting a shot just under the pesky bar.
The game remained 1-0 at halftime, but Ellertson again broke down the Elma defense before finding a wide-open Pulicella in the top-right corner of the penalty area. Pulicella took a touch to settle the ball, then lofted a shot over the keeper.
“I just turned, saw the space, and saw one of my closest friends there,” Ellertson said. “We have this crazy connection, and I just tried to play the ball to her. She got it and got an awesome shot.”
Ellertson finished the scoring on a counterattack, taking a pass from Andrea Finley and breaking away down the left wing before slotting a shot home in the 57th minute.
King’s Way Christian outshot Elma 27-0.
“I thought we were dynamic on the attack tonight,” said Tina Ellertson. “And our back line, led by our center back, Amber Kolb, did a great job containing their threats. Our relentlessness has not allowed us to be complacent this year.”
Montesano 2, Seton Catholic 1 — Junior Kiya Gere answered an early Montesano goal to draw Seton Catholic even in the 34th minute, but an own goal off a deflected shot with 10 minutes left gave the Evergreen champs the win.
The Cougars now face an Elma team they lost to 5-1 in their season opener.
“We were doing a lot of experimenting in that game,” Chase said. “It’ll be interesting to see how much we’ve improved since then.”
