PUYALLUP — For 78 minutes, Camas was, to put it simply, outplayed.
They were jumped on from the opening whistle with speed, and a physicality that, even Camas players admit, they weren’t expecting. That produced tired legs, football-like tackles, black eyes and even verbal spats.
With four minutes left, an offense that touted 106 goals on the season entering Friday’s game, had nothing to show for.
Then the floodgates opened.
Down but not out, the Papermakers scored two goals in the span of three minutes to complete a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Central Valley in the 4A state semifinals at Sparks Stadium on Friday evening.
“We saw it pretty much right away,” Camas coach Roland Minder said. “They were faster, quicker to the ball, stronger and it was a physical game, so I don’t know we really had any business winning that game.”
A highway robbery? A magic trick?
“Absolutely,” Minder said. All of it.
With the win, Camas booked a date with Skyline (which beat Isaaquah 1-0 in the late game) in the 4A state title on Saturday at 4 p.m.
Underscoring the Papermakers’ efforts was a senior class that didn’t want to quit, and a team that is playing for its outgoing coach, Minder, who is retiring after 24 years after the season.
Central Valley scored in the 15th minute when speedy wing Kailyn LaBrosse beat the Camas defense down the right side and pounded in a shot from inside the 18-yard box. Minder knew the Bears’ speed would create problems. So he weighed his options.
“Question was,” he said, “now we’re down 1-0, do we keep going aggressive forward? Or shore it up in the back and see if we can get something in the game?”
He opted for the latter and sent quick outside wing Jenna Efraimson back to play outside defender.
“Even then it got pretty dicey a few times,” Minder said. “But it paid off.”
After a bruising majority of regulation, Camas’ first goal was a product of extra effort.
As a defender went to shield a through-ball to clear space for the CV goalkeeper, senior midfielder Callie Rheaume, who was pressing high, tried to get a foot around the defender and onto the ball.
“I was trying to get as much of a touch on it as I could,” Rheaume said. “It was rolling so slow into the goal.”
Her touch poked the ball past the charging goalkeeper and slow-rolled — Rheaume said it felt like five minutes — into the goal to even the score at 1-1 with one minute left in regulation.
In the 80th minute, with the season on the line, the Papermakers’ decorated goal-scorer delivered.
Maddie Kemp received a ball down the left sideline, and with one defender face-guarding her, and the rest of the back line closing in, she nutmegged the first defender, side-stepped the next two and blasted a shot over the charging goalie.
“The were playing me pretty tight at the end and their whole back line was on me,” Kemp said. “A couple cuts and I was free.”
The goal sent the crowd into mayhem as the Camas players on the field mobbed their goal-scorer.
“That’s how it works for us,” Kemp said. “When we get one goal, we’re going to get another.”
Minder had been a part of a similar game once before. Then, in the 2007 boys state title game, he was on the wrong end of it. This time around felt a bit better.
“Uh, yeah,” Minder said, revealing an ear-to-ear smile.
CAMAS 2, CENTRAL VALLEY 1
Camas
Goals (assists) — Callie Rheaume (unassisted), Maddie Kemp (Jenna Efraimson). Isabella Gieszler 2.
Central Valley
Goals (assists) — Kailyn LaBrosse (unassisted).
Halftime — Central Valley 1-0.
