And then there were eight.
Olympic girls soccer is in the state quarterfinals for the first time since 2000 after a 1-0 first-round victory against Shadle Park (Spokane) at Silverdale Stadium Tuesday.
The 10th-ranked Lady Trojans (15-4-0) face Shorecrest on the road today as they look to advance to the state semifinals for the first time in school history.
“I think it means a lot to the team because it shows that we can play at this level, get to the state level and that if we work as a team, we can succeed,” said Oly goalkeeper Darrien Dorr, who posted her ninth consecutive shutout. “It just lifts our confidence that much more.”
Senior midfielder Ali Brown, who was thwarted on numerous scoring opportunities early on, scored the winning goal unassisted in the 78th minute after securing a loose ball behind Shadle Park’s back line.
A linesman raised the offsides flag, but the whistle never blew, allowing Brown to slip a right-footed shot past Shadle Park goalkeeper Bianca Pope from about 10 yards out.
“I knew it wasn’t offsides because when the girl kicked (the ball) it went over my head, and when I turned around there was a defender in front of me, and none of my players were in front of that defender,” Brown said.
“The flag is just an indication that the linesman might have seen something, it doesn’t control play,” added Oly coach Steve Haggerty. “It’s a shame it had to end that way, but I thought Ali scored a nice goal.”
Brown’s goal was the lone blip on an otherwise stellar performance by Pope, who finished with 13 saves.
“She’s the reason they made it as far as they did,” Haggerty said of Pope, a senior.
Both teams had scoring chances in the first half, but Dorr and Pope exchanged saves to keep the game scoreless. Oly’s Audrey Pond nearly scored in the final five seconds before halftime after kick-vollying a shot through traffic toward the upper-right corner of the goal, but Pope snagged it.
“I think there were two outstanding goalkeepers in this game,” Haggerty said. “Any time the ball went through, Darrien was there to scoop it up. I’m real pleased to have a goalkeeper the caliber of Darrien, with that competitiveness.”
Dorr, who finished with six saves, hasn’t yielded a goal since Oct. 2. She credited the back line for allowing Shadle Park few clean shots while holding scoring threat Kristi Wirtz at bay.
“I have to credit my defense because I can’t do it without them,” Dorr said. “They do a lot of the work.”
Shadle Park (6-10) upset No. 1 seed Mount Spokane in the Greater Spokane League playoffs to advance to state.
The Lady Trojans, who have been outscored 10-1 and are 0-3 all-time in state quarterfinal games, now look to Shorecrest (14-5-2) of the WesCo South Conference. Shorecrest scored in the 82nd minute to beat East Valley 1-0 in another round-of-16 game Tuesday.
“We don’t control where we play, but we control how we play,” Haggerty said. “The mentality is to keep playing hard and see what we can do, that’s all we can do. We’ll play for 80 minutes, maybe 90, try to put the ball in the net and keep it out of ours.”
And for seniors such as Brown, advancing beyond the first round of state is a feat to be proud of.
“It really brings our confidence level up, to know we are one of the (final) eight teams,” Brown said. “It’s really cool that we get to keep going.”
The approach leading into today’s match and a possible berth to the state semifinals?
“Just try as hard as you can,” Brown said. “That’s what I do every game.”
Today’s semifinal kicks off at 7 p.m. at Shoreline Stadium in Shoreline.
