Varsity - BHS vs Woodinville 10-16-25

Bellevue 2-1 Woodinville OT Golden Goal
​
3rd min Paris (Ava)
60th min Woodinville goal from FK and header
83rd min Saleen (Ava) Golden goal 

Twice in the space of two weeks we have defeated the #1 ranked 4A team in the state...first it was undefeated Issaquah last Thursday, and then Woodinville last night. That's quite a week (especially if we goldfish our game against Bothell). 

We got off to a very strong start, buzzing into tackles and keeping possession nicely between our backline and midfield. In the first minute, Emerson stepped into midfield to win the ball and her challenge looped behind the Woodinville defense and Mack pounced, sliding the ball beneath the Woodinville keeper and off the far post. Just wide...and offside..but our intentions were very clear. The tone had been set. And just a minute later, Ava took the role of ballwinner in midfield, and released Paris down the left wing. Paris beat her defender, cut inside, and curled a beautiful shot into the far corner of the goal. 1-0 Bellevue. Sweet tackling with a thick frosting of quick transitions is one of my favorite recipes. Delicious.  

And the tone was set. Did Woodinville have chances? Of course they did. They are an excellent team that deserved to be ranked #1 and featured quality all over the pitch. But on the night, we were a step quicker, a fraction more committed, and most importantly for me, we displayed several extended segments of smooth, one-touch and two-touch passing, with supporting movement that opened up the spaces that was a joy to watch. If we can ever turn those beautiful segments into longer phases, and eventually, into an entire 80 minutes...well then...more great things will happen. 

We maintained our 1-0 lead into halftime, and quite frankly, we should've been playing against 10 as the referee missed a jersey tug from the last Woodinville defender on Saleen to prevent a clear break-away. From where I was standing, it was a clear violation, a shirt-tug that spun Saleen around and slowed her progress, and by rule, the woodinville player should've seen red. Not from anything dirty, but denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity is written in the rules, and it was simply missed. Sigh. The referee must have had a bad angle on the play. It happens. We went into halftime with our 1-0 lead.  

There was no let down as we started the second half. We continued to stay connected, keeping our axis tight from back to front and making it very difficult for Woodinville to maintain possession across their backline. Then Raina made bold run down the right wing, got inside her defender, and was brought down several yards inside the Woodinville penalty area. Immediate whistle. Clear penalty. But wait, the referee didn't point to the spot, but to a place on the turf several yards behind where the foul took place...just outside of the box. Ugh. I understand that referees don't like giving penalties unless it's indisputable, and if the foul occurs anywhere close to the line, many many referees take the more conservative decision and leave it as a free kick just outside the box. The AR told me that the referee saw the Woodinville defender hook Raina's arm outside the box before fouling her a second time in the box...after watching the video I can understand the decision, but in my opinion, if the clear foul hadn't been made in the box, the arm tussling would never have been called originally. But we'll never know. Of course, coming so close to extending the lead via a PK, what happens next? A Woodinville goal. From a free kick from 40 yards away, a Woodinville player dashed between our defender and our onrushing keeper to flick the ball into an empty net with her head. Tie game. 1-1 in the 60th minute. The last twenty minutes were like watching two battered and bloodly fighters in the ring in the 10th round, legs wobbly, but still throwing haymakers hoping for a knock-out punch that never came. We were tired. They were tired. The soccer got a bit sloppier. But neither team conceded an inch of turf without a challenge. We rotated substitutes in a quick fire attempt to get a few minutes of rest across our line-up, but a few field players had to go the duration (thank you Ava, Aanya, Maggie, our fab three who never came off the pitch). 

Then came the regulation whistle and we were into Golden Goal overtime, two five-minute periods when the first goal ends the game. But we didn't need five minutes, we only needed three to score one of my favorite goals of the season. It started with a simple but quick throw-in from Aanya at midfield on the left side. Mack checked back to receive the ball and one-touched back to Aanya, who one-touched a perfect 25yd square ball to Ava just inside the Woodinville attacking third. Ava hit ANOTHER one-touch pass to a wide-open Saleen 30 yards from goal...and Saleen took..more than one-touch...in fact, she deked three defenders in one of her trademark mazy dribbles, then sat down the goalkeeper before blasting the winning goal into the back of the net. Sublime. My favorite style of soccer: fluid one and two touch passing from midfield into attacking areas and then exquisite unpredictable creativity once we have the ball in dangerous areas. 

It was like Hemingway writing about the running of the bulls in Pamplona: we kept the prose gritty and simple to set the scene with dramatic tension, then dazzled with powerful and decisive storytelling at the conclusion. Golden goal. Pulitzer.

So now we head into our final week of the regular season with two more home games: Redmond and chief 3A rival Liberty. Our final home game against Liberty is also senior night.

We'll know more about our league playoff prospects after each of our games next week, but our Woodinville win was like getting the pole position at a track like Monaco: it's still possible to falter during the actual race (flat tire, mis-judge a turn, mechanical issue), but most times whoever earns the pole position in Monaco typically gets a trophy and a champagne shower.

Our next opportunity is against Redmond. See you then.