Sammamish

Bellevue 5 - 0 Sammamish  

After the boisterous home crowd vs. Holy Names on Saturday night, the Sammamish stadium was all quiet and echoes for our Kingco league opener.   Apparently our clever and rowdy student supporters must have had homework. Despite the cavernous atmosphere, the conditions were perfect and our girls were too. In our team talk before the game, my only coaching point was to respect our opponent regardless of past history, performance or perceived quality. We could discuss mercy and kindness at halftime if necessary, but I wanted to approach the first half with our typical competitive ferociousness. Respect the opponent and play our best.     And so we did.     It took four minutes for our quality to show on the scoreboard as Joelle's square ball to JoJo in the box led to a clear penalty call as JoJo's quickness was too much for her Sammamish defender. JoJo stepped up and made her penalty. Twice. Not an easy task to retake a PK, but both attempts were un-saveable and we took an early, but deserved, 1-0 lead. Less than 10 minutes later and the game was all but over. Kiley, Joelle and Paige had a beautiful three-player combination on the right wing, and our shin-guard-wearing-to-school freshman cut her cross back to JoJo who finished from 10yds to secure her brace. And Paige's first point of her high school career. A minute later, Kiley crossed for Joelle who volleyed over the keeper's head to the far left side of the goal: 3-0 after 15 minutes and the rout was on.  By halftime it was 5-0 after Kiley scored from Katie F and Grace scored from an asset from JoJo. It was a crisp, cold-blooded masterclass of passing, movement and clinical finishing.     Then at halftime we finally got to talk about mercy and sportsmanship. This game could've been 10-0 if we continued the trajectory from the excellent first half. But that isn't the sporting thing to do. I believe in sportsmanship. And our girls do too. So in the 2nd half we worked on possession and made sure our girls didn't get put in any risky situations or bad tackles.     Yes, a Sammamish defender should've been red carded for a professional foul that denied a clear goal-scoring opportunity..but I was more thankful that JoJo was uninjured from the clumsy challenge than angry at the referee for not making the proper call. Bygones.   In the end, the girls took care of business in a game we knew we should win. But soccer is a funny game sometimes, and quirky things can happen if you don't respect your opponent. So I'm very satisfied that our girls didn't look past SHS and put in a performance that was comprehensive.     Highlights: welcome back to high school soccer JoJo Harber. high school soccer missed you. two goals and an assist in 40 minutes, that will do; Joelle and Kiley both had a goal and assist as they terrorized their respective opponents on the wings; Grace's goal was sublime; and Paige's overlap from right fullback for the assist to JoJo was beautiful poetry; Ana had her best minutes of the season, ball-winning in midfield, distributing smartly and covering vast swathes of the field in an extremely energetic performance. Well done Ana. Our backline was disciplined and poised. I love our depth and I'm thankful that we got to showcase that depth tonight. Priya, Caylee and Claire were great tonight along with regulars Maud, Catie B, Nikole and Paige in our backline. Ellie & Katie did all of the things that Ellie & Katie do. And Courtney put in another smooth shift at center midfield.     Excellence all around.     We even got in some extra fitness work.   13 games left in Kingco. Next up: we get our first look at Redmond at home at 8pm on Thursday.  Let's see if we can get our student supporters to do their homework earlier and come out to our game...