The Wildcats struck first.
The Lions bounced back big-time.
And down the stretch, it was just a flat-out battle, with the West Linn girls soccer team eventually holding on to win its cross-district rivalry game against Wilsonville 2-1 at Wilsonville High School on Tuesday, Sept. 16.
“I think it was pretty good,” said West Linn sophomore Ellis Highland, who scored two second-half goals in less than two minutes to pace her team’s win. “I think (the key was) the energy and the team really working together and keeping the energy up.”
“(The key was) just staying calm, because I feel like a lot of times we get a little rattled and we just force it,” said Lion senior goalkeeper and team captain Nyamma Nelson. “But this year, we've been working more on passing and playing through the back which has been working for us.”
“I think we came out kind of low energy, but after that first (Wilsonville) goal, we settled in and became aware of our situation and I think we worked really well together,” added WL senior team captain Cassidy Harding.
The Lions – the fourth-ranked team in Class 6A – won for the second straight time, remained unbeaten and improved to 3-0-1 overall. Next up, West Linn hosts No. 3 Grant at 7 p.m. Thursday at West Linn High School.
Wilsonville, the top-ranked team in Class 5A, saw its one-game winning streak snapped and fell to 3-2 overall. Next up, the Wildcats host Oregon City at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19.
While disappointed with the loss, the Wildcats – the three-time reigning Class 5A state champions – were not disappointed with their efforts.
“Even though this is a loss in the books, we're going to learn from it and take something away that will help our game and that's a plus,” said Wilsonville senior midfielder Tegan Waters, who assisted on her team’s lone goal.
“I think we worked really well together,” added Wildcat junior forward Camryn Schaan, who scored her team’s goal vs. West Linn. “We came together and we knew we needed to play together to win the game. Then we came out and scored a goal right away and made an impact on the game.”
While West Linn eventually ended up on top, Wilsonville came out strong at the start of Tuesday’s game, had the early possession edge and took a 1-0 lead with 26 minutes, 26 seconds left in the first half when Waters made a strong run up the right side of the field, then sent a through ball to Schaan, who took one touch to get past the final Lion defenders, then scored to the right corner of the West Linn goal.
“We were definitely holding down our side of the house,” Waters said. “It's our home and we were here to defend it.”
West Linn, however, was awakened by Wilsonville’s early success.
“Honestly, I had more nerves going into the game. That goal kind of settled me down,” Nelson said. “You kind of saw my changing demeanor. I was like ‘Calm down. We've got it.’ It was like a switch went off for me.”
The Lions began to pressure the Wildcats in the final 20 minutes of the first half, getting a dangerous shot from Harding and three corner kicks – but no goals.
West Linn kept the pressure on at the start of the second half, too, with junior Kylee Schreck missing an early one-on-one attempt against Wilsonville junior keeper Scout Dennis and the Lions adding three more shots on goal in the next four minutes.
While Dennis stopped the first three of those, West Linn broke through on its next chance. There, Schreck sent a corner kick into the Wilsonville penalty box from the left side and Highland headed it home to tie the contest at 1-1.
Then, just 1:57 later, Highland scored again. She pushed the ball up the middle of the field, took a touch to get past the final two Wildcat defenders and scored in the top of the Wilsonville goal to make it 2-1 with 31:12 left to play.
“(The key was) communicating,” Harding said. “Our passing, our communication and passing led to those goals. … After that first goal, we sat in there and worked as a team and we put the ball in the net.”
“It was a bit tough in the second half,” Schaan said. “We didn't come out how we should have and we just let them get goals. We let those two goals in and we were like ‘We've got to get back in it.’”
To their great credit, however, the Wildcats didn’t fold. Indeed, they took over possession during the final 15 minutes and pressured West Linn – only to be stopped by Nelson and defenders Emma Huberty (a senior), Kali Daniels (a junior) and Izzie Mansfield (a senior).
“We kept pushing,” Waters said. “Until the last whistle blows, we're still working hard to get what we want which is a good outcome.”
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