POULSBO — The Lady Vikes were faced with an end or a beginning at the start of the game Wednesday night. The playoffs were at stake as fourth-place Olympic came to town for the deciding match-up.

It was senior night for North Kitsap, and the six were finally all back in action.

“I was finally able to play (almost) all of the seniors about two weeks ago,” coach Pat Stickney said of his team’s injury woes.

Most of the senior group suffered injuries early in the season, Stickney said, adding “It was nice for them to get some time.”

By Wednesday night, they had all returned. The senior ceremony took place during the pre-game followed by the “Star Spangled Banner.” Four years of memories poured into minute-long speeches echoed through the stadium followed by applause. By the start of the game, North was ready to play.

All six seniors started with intensity for the Vikings. The Trojans came to play as well, and the teams battled scoreless halfway through the first half. They hashed it out around midfield, with few shot attempts early.

North’s defense was stiff, however, its offense was tentative. Amber Grable provided much of the first-half charge with shots from the midfield.

Despite the small number of shots, North’s offense controlled the game through most of the first half. The few Oly shots that were taken were denied by solid keeper Kelsey Krasas.

Brenna Lander helped to hasten North’s offense, but she ended up too quick multiple times in the game; with 11 minutes left in the half, an offsides call stopped a Viking drive. Another opportunity was thwarted as an Amber Grable one-on-one with Oly goalie Pepper Fauna ended up out of bounds for Olympic’s possession.

Repeatedly, the Lady Vikes got out in front of the Oly defenders, but the Trojans always got back before a shot was taken.

With just under five minutes left in the half, Oly’s Shannon White cut and caught a pass in the heart of the North’s defense placed a shot past Krasas for the first goal of the game. The ensuing energy revitalized the Trojans.

Olympic threatened again on their next advance, but an inside pass just missed. White then knocked the wind out of the Vikes, scoring from deep with a little over a minute left in the half, leaving Trojan fans wanting “one more before half!”

Olympic got a good look on a corner kick with 30 seconds, but the header sailed over the goal. At halftime, the score was 2-0, Oly.

The Lady Trojans came out of the half as the aggressors. Two minutes in, Oly freshman Amanda Kadrmas stole a kick from the left side and barely missed long. The shot got the team riled up, and Rachel Haas capitalized putting the Trojans up by her number close to five minutes into the half with the final Olympic goal of the game.

A zig-zagging White breakaway ended in a shot off the crossbar and another Olympic cornerkick nearly got knocked in at 32 minutes, while North struggled to keep the ball in Oly’s field.

A string of offsides penalties and timid shots thwarted Viking advances. But North attacked, relentlessly combatting Olympics attempts.

The NK attempts got more strategic near the end of the game, but the long passes couldn’t quite slice the Trojan D. Short passes, though, moved the ball forward and into the goalie box again and after three shots on Fauna, NK senior Madeliene Hernandez scored the lone purple goal.

At the end of the post-game handshakes, the Vikings split to each end of the field to take the nets down for the season.

“Pack everything up,” coach Stickney said coming off the field.

The best accomplishment of the season was having everyone back by the last game Stickney said, adding, “It’s been nice to see the girls grow in the game.”