The Ellensburg Bulldogs shouldn’t feel too bad.
Apparently, there is only one thing that can keep the Columbia River girls soccer team from reaching the Class 2A state semifinals.
A worldwide pandemic.
For an eighth consecutive year in which a state tournament has been held — the tournament was not held during the COVID year of 2020-21 — the Rapids punched their ticket to the state’s final four with a resounding 4-0 win over Ellensburg on Saturday.
“It never gets old,” senior defender Raya Janson said. “It’s the best feeling, and we’re so grateful every year. We’ve been here for four (years) and every year, it’s the same. We put in the same amount of work and everything.”
While the backline, led by Jensen and fellow senior Peyton Dukes, is a strength for the Rapids, River’s forwards came out pushing hard, as the first five minutes were playing almost entirely on the Ellensburg’s half of the field.
“They were lively from the beginning,” coach Filomon Afenegus said. “The backline has been a mainstay the whole entire year, but our forwards and midfielders did a good job defensively. We won the ball higher up on the field and created some good opportunities off of that.”
Janson said the Rapids were pleasantly surprised by Ellenburg’s choice of which side of the field the Bulldogs’ would defend to start the match, allowing River’s offense to operate in front of its bench.
“It was just like ‘well, if we’re going to play offense on this side, then let’s hype it up,’ ” Janson said. “I think that helped at the start of the game just bring the whole tempo up. We got the parents going. I think that our energy just hyped everybody up.”
River’s early energy and pressure produced its first goal in the 18th minute when Sydney Stimmel knocked in a rebound of a shot by Meg Perkins.
River took that 1-0 lead into halftime, but the margin felt larger given the Rapids’ first-half edge of possession.
“We just talked about finishing,” Afenegus said. “Really, that’s it. We got some good moments in the first half. We just needed to put them in the back of the net. The second half, we were just very efficient in the first 20 minutes of the half.”
Like the rain pouring down, the Rapids got a quick deluge of goals in the second half.
Makayla Hundt scored off an assist from Perkins in the 45th minute, Remi Buckley tapped in a cross from Ivy Henderson in the 49th minute, and Stimmel scored again in the 55th minute.
Columbia River will face West Valley of Spokane in the state semifinals at 5 p.m. Friday at Mt. Tahoma High School in Tacoma.
Dukes said Saturday’s win was the payoff of a season of work.
“Just super thrilled with our performance tonight,” Dukes said. “The past few weeks have been all that work to get us here. We just got to keep pushing, and I think we’ll be super confident going into next weekend. We’re super excited about it, glad to be back, and we’ll just keep pushing.”
COLUMBIA RIVER 4, ELLENSBURG 0
Columbia River
Goals (assists) — Sydney Stimmel (Meg Perkins); Makayla Hundt (Perkins); Remi Buckley (Ivy Henderson); Stimmel (Ava Labrador). Goalkeeper saves — Ruby Ayers 1.
Halftime — Columbia River 1-0.
