Late goal lifts Tigard girls soccer to league-opening win over St. Mary's

After trading blows for 70 minutes Wednesday, Oct. 9, Tigard High School and St. Mary’s Academy girls soccer were looking for a knockout blow.

In the 74th minute, that punch finally landed for the Tigers, and it came in dazzling fashion.

Senior Katia Pender played a ball near the far sideline, way out of her normal midfield position.

The Oregon-commit then fired a cross all the way into the box that found the head of junior Harlyn Tischhauser between two Blues defenders. The junior sent the ball to the near post and past the SMA keeper for the goal and what was ultimately the game winner.

“(Pender is) playing the nine and instead she’s rolling way out to the line, covering every part of the field, and gets herself all the way down to the corner and somehow gets a ball off to cross with that kind of precision,” Tigard head coach Scott Eggleston said. “We practice this daily, put the ball where we’re going to score, she put it in that one spot and sure enough, there’s Harlyn and she did what she’s supposed to do.”

Pender helped the Tigers (7-2, 1-0 TRL) own the first 20 minutes of the match when she fired two shots on goal that were saved by SMA goalkeeper Claire Gaylord.

The Blues (6-2-1, 0-2 TRL) were trying out some new schemes early on according to head coach Greg Martin, but after those first 20 minutes, the Blues got back into shape and returned the favor.

Senior Mia Sena had a good look to get saved off a free kick just outside of the penalty box, and had another shot on goal a few minutes later crossing into the box.

At a scoreless halftime, the Tigers had five shots and four of them on goal while SMA had three shots all on goal.

“My focus for them at halftime was to keep it simple, connect up, look for your connections and break them down with possession and trust your abilities to go forward and attack,” Martin said. “We had our looks, we usually get a few more looks than tonight so I think (Tigard) did a good job to make it difficult for us, but it was a great game.”

The shots started flying for both sides in the second half, starting with a flurry from Tigard who launched three shots in the opening 10 minutes of the half, two of them saved by Gaylord.

Then it was Sena in the 50th minute to return fire on a shot that missed the goal, followed by the Tigers getting off four more shots from the 52nd to 55th minutes.

“Any time someone wants to come into our home field, we gotta protect it and we knew it would be a battle,” Eggleston said. “They would throw a punch, we would throw a punch. It was a well played game from 18 to 18, and it was just about who was going to finish.”

Sena had the best look of the night for the Blues off a free kick. She passed it short and ran to the corner of the box where she got the ball back and a mostly open net in front of her. However, her shot sailed just a little too high and over the crossbar in the 65th minute.

Pender added a couple more shots in the 69th and 70th minutes, and then made the final breakthrough play in the 74th when she sent a perfect cross from a nearly impossible angle.

“She’s that kind of player where you can play her anywhere on the field,” Eggleston said. “She just plays 100% wherever she goes, she’s a fantastic kid, a great athlete. Oregon will be lucky to have her next year.”

Tigard finished with 17 shots, nine of them going on goal compared to five shots for SMA, four of them on goal. Each side had three corner kicks.

For SMA, the loss is its second consecutive after opening league play with a similar 1-0 loss to West Linn.

While dropping the first two in league isn’t ideal, the Blues entered the week ranked No. 5 in the latest OSAAToday coaches poll and know they are capable of beating just about anyone.

The Blues next match is at 4:45 p.m. Monday, Oct. 14 against Lakeridge at Buckman Field in Portland.

For Tigard, the win marked the Three Rivers League opener and gives the Tigers a strong start into possibly the deepest league in 6A girls soccer.

Wednesday was proof though that the Tigers can be a contender in this league and more if they continue to grind out each possession.

“If we can continue to compete like this at home and then take a little bit of it on the road, I like our chances,” Eggleston said. “We got a lot of tough teams ahead, but getting that first one in league is important and we did it against a good team.”

Tigard is back at home next at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 14 to take on Lake Oswego.