Everyone in attendance at Kiggins Bowl stood still and silent Saturday as players, one-by-one, stepped into the 18-yard box to decide the fate of their team’s season.
All of the eyes on the goalkeepers that penalty kicks bring could prove daunting.
Columbia River forward Yaneisy Rodriquez opted to turn her back to the action and await the crowd’s reaction.
Goalkeeper Liz Canton dove left and saved the fourth penalty, all five of her teammates netting theirs to lift Columbia River to the 2A state semifinals for the second consecutive year with a scoreless 1-0 win — 5-4 in penalty kicks — over Bellingham.
Canton’s approach?
“I really just don’t think,” the Columbia River keeper said. “I kind of just go for it. You just have to go with your gut.”
When Katie Lee sunk game-clinching penalty, the River bench made a beeline to the center of the field and piled on top of one another in celebration.
“It was a good feeling,” Lee said. “I’m glad we were able to do it as a team.”
The Chieftains, the reigning 2A state champions, advance to the semifinals against White River of Buckley on Friday in Shoreline. Coach Filomon Afenegus said the win bucked the trend that each time River won state, it gets bounced in first round the following year.
Through 80 minutes of regular time and two five-minute overtime periods without a goal, the game was not short of action.
Both teams had goals called back in the final 10 minutes.
With just over seven minutes to play in regulation, Shalece Easley corralled a through-ball around three defenders and fired a shot off the right post. Sophia Skimas sent in a cross off the rebound, which the Bellingham goalkeeper appeared to mishandle behind the goal line for a River goal. But the ref called a foul on forward Reggie Griffith for obstructing the goalkeeper once she had control of the ball.
With two minutes left, Canton rose up to grab a free kick out of the air and was knocked over by a Bellingham player. The ball popped loose in front of goal, and a River defender scored an own goal in an attempt to clear it out. But the center referee, after consulting the assistant referee, called a foul on obstructing the keeper.
“When the ball went in the back of the net, I was mad,” Canton said. “That shouldn’t have been a goal. I’m so grateful they called that back.”
The result didn’t come as a surprise to Afenegus, who said the team has been practicing penalty kicks often since the postseason started.
“We are very adamant about practicing PKs, because we’ve had our hearts broken on PKs. We want to try to avoid losing on PKs,” Afenegus said. “In the back of your mind you just worry about being the better team, going to kicks and not winning it. But hitting five out of five PKs, that was really impressive.”
Impressive, sure. But it certainly didn’t surprise Afengus. He cited the closeness of the Chieftains both on and off the field.
“We’re a fighting team,” Canton said. “You have teams who are (full of talented) individual players, but we really work well as a team. We’re just really determined because we know how good we can be, and all we want to do is reach that. And we want to spend as long as we can with this group of girls.”
