A few things are all-too-familiar with Columbia River’s girls soccer program.
Qualifying for state — as the Chieftains did Tuesday with their 1-0 district semifinal win over Hockinson — is one, and so is playing for a district title.
River earned its ninth straight state playoff berth and aims for its fourth consecutive district title following its semifinal win at Chieftain Stadium. In doing so, it’ll face another league-rival — Ridgefield — in the Thursday district title match at Chieftain Stadium. Game time is 7 p.m.
In fact, the 2A Greater St. Helens League has dominated the entire 2A Southwest District tournament. River and Ridgefield clinched two of the three state berths after three-fourths of the district’s semifinal teams came from the 2A GSHL.
Tuesday was Round 3 between the Hawks and Chieftains, and it’ll be the same Thursday when River and Ridgefield face off for a third time.
That same intensity brought against Hockinson is what junior midfielder Reggie Griffith hopes comes Thursday against the Spudders, who won their semifinal over 2A Evergreen Conference champion Tumwater, 3-1, on Tuesday. River topped Ridgefield, 2-1 and 2-0, in their two league meetings.
“We need to forget how we beat Ridgefield twice,” she said, “and go into it working as hard as we can.”
River swept Hockinson, 4-1 and 2-1 in their league meetings, and Tuesday was all defense. Yaniesy Rodriguez’s goal off a loose ball following Ella Osborne corner kick held up for the only score, but not before Hockinson increased its pressure the final 20 minutes.
And in the final 8 minutes, junior Luci Ianello intercepted two crosses that were then cleared by the River defense.
Ianello, who returned to soccer after running cross country as a sophomore, commended how well the backline continues to grow.
“We’re working well together,” she said. “We keep improving almost every game and in practice we work a lot on defending on set pieces. Today, we were improving on that and playing together and staying compact in the back.”
Before districts began Saturday, River had five consecutive shutouts to end the regular-season 15-0.
River didn’t have its best game against the Hawks, players acknowledged postgame, but when the intensity rose in the second half, the Chieftains responded.
“Every game is different,” Ianello said. “We had to step that up, and in the sense we really wanted it and got that extra push.”
Allie Countryman had three saves. Amanda Jeschke and Madison Perry combined for three saves for the Hawks.
