Junior Varsity - Bellevue vs Lake Washington 10-5-2023

Bellevue 3-3 Lake Washington

6th min  Mack (free kick)
13th min Anna (Kasia)
15th min LW goal
20th min Kasia (Ari)
38th min LW goal
80th min LW goal

FTJ ….(Finish The Job)

It is a mantra we use often in the Bellevue girl’s soccer program in an effort to get our teams to fight until the final whistle, protect/add to a lead and see the game out.

Unfortunately on Thursday night at Lake Washington High School, with homecoming on our minds,  our JV girls couldn’t quite FTJ. We surrendered a corner kick goal to LW at the death and let them escape with a tie. A frustrating outcome but something I hope we can learn from.

The game started out just as we planned with crisp passing, lots of communication and some great goals. Mack got us started in just the 6th minute with a sizzling free kick that slipped by numerous defenders and found the back of the net. Any low, hard shot on frame always causes havoc and more often then not, good things happen.

Kasia did her thing just a few minutes later as she maneuvered around her defender to rifle a shot the goal keeper could only deflect away. Anna, as she is accustomed to do, pounced on the loose ball and put it in the net. Just 15 minutes into the game we were up 2-0 and looked to be cruising.

But Lake Washington had other ideas and capitalized on some defensive miscommunication that left a Kangaroo forward wide open in the penalty area for an easy goal. Our defense has been solid thus far this season so we chalked it up to a minor lapse and we moved on.

Kasia padded our lead midway through the first half with another great individual effort. Again, she spun her defender in circles and raced toward goal. A clinical finish put us up 3-1 and we felt we were back on track.

Not so much. Minutes before the halftime whistle our backline got a little out of shape and a LW crossed skipped past us and found a player in front of the net who side-footed a tough shot in the corner of the net and we found ourselves clinging to a 3-2 lead at halftime.

We talked at halftime about cleaning up our miscues, continuing to work hard and add to our lead. Giving up two goals is not what we are accustomed to and I wanted the girls to realize mistakes happen but they can’t be repeated.

The second half was back and forth but I felt we had the upper hand. LW did a good job adjusting to shut down Kasia on the wing and she had trouble getting free for some of her patented flank runs. Our effort was there but we just couldn’t find that last pass or takeaway.

As we neared the end of the game, as usual, things got frantic. We tried to see the game out and LW was in press-mode and was sending long ball after long ball into our end for our backline to clear. With minutes to go a series of unfortunate events led to a late LW goal. A failed goal kick clearance, a questionable foul all led to not one but two corner kicks. A little ball-watching saw a Kangaroo player get to the back post and out jump our team for the game-tying goal. Ugh.

With better late-game decisions, supreme focus and relentless effort, I believe we could have walked away with a victory. But on this night, it just wasn’t meant to be. Unfortunate yes, but hopefully we can take this, learn from it and move on.

We have now seen all of our league opponents and I feel we definitely have the best team this year. It will take total effort from everyone on the roster to win the league again. But I am confident if we play Bellevue soccer, no one can beat us.

Have fun during homecoming weekend and be safe. See you next week for Juanita on Tuesday and Friday night for Interlake (nonconference).