The Columbia River and Ridgefield girls soccer teams have seen plenty of each other this season, both times favoring River.
The Chieftains made sure when they played the Spudders Tuesday with the playoffs on the line, they would produce a similar result.
River, the defending 2A state champion, punched its return ticket to the state playoffs through a late-second half goal and a strong defensive showing to net a 1-0 win over Ridgefield in the 2A district semifinals at Kiggins Bowl.
And the Chieftains say they still have unfinished business.
“We have qualified for state a lot of times, and they wanted to keep that tradition alive,” Chieftains coach Filly Afenegus said. “The fact that we won the district championship last year, we wanted to have a chance to go and defend it.”
With the win, River will play Hockinson on Thursday at Kiggins Bowl for a district championship and, perhaps more importantly, seeding at state.
Possession was even in the first half, and despite multiple chances for both teams, the game was scoreless at the break. The Spudders immediately pushed tempo into the attacking half to start the second half of play, but no goal scoring chances came of it. River held possession for much of the second half.
“Defensively we were really organized and limited most of their chances, and created some chances offensively,” Afenegus said. “So I felt like it was a really good team performance, I felt like everyone played really well tonight.”
Shalece Easley scored the winner midway through the second half, but River had plenty of chances leading up.
Sophomore midfielder Kyla Castro’s diving efforts to head a cross missed wide left.
Then Easley beat two Ridgefield defenders to a through-ball from senior forward Sophia Skimas and volleying it past the goalkeeper first time.
Easley said the said she thought of River’s 10 seniors when she scored the goal.
“Before the game all the seniors were really serious about it, and said ‘I don’t want to have (this be) the last game,” Easley said, “I would feel horrible if I didn’t take that opportunity … so I did what I could.”
River’s Yaneisy Rodrigues lost a sliding defender with a cut-back on a run down the right side, and crossed it to sophomore midfielder Julia Cash, whose shot narrowly sailed over the crossbar.
The Spudders’ best chance came with 18 minutes to play when freshman midfielder Tegan Peterson saw open space and blasted a shot from about 20 yards out, but it was saved by the goalkeeper.
River won the first two meetings with Ridgefield in league play 2-1 and 4-0. For the Chieftains, they knew a loss knocking them in the loser’s bracket would present a tougher road to state. Afenegus was frank with the team when he laid out the options.
“If we win, we have an automatic bid to state and we get a chance to add another trophy to the cabinet. Which would you rather do? That was enough motivation for our girls,” he said.
