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Stadium's early goal holds up

HIGH SCHOOLS: Olympia girls fall to Tigers, 1-0, in evenly played Narrows playoff match

BART POTTER; For The Olympian | • Published October 29, 2009

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Olympia - Two girls soccer teams with very similar profiles played 80 minutes Wednesday night separated by a single goal.

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Olympia vs Stadium Girls Soccer Playoffs

That goal, scored in the first three minutes of the match, held up for the Stadium Tigers in a 1-0 victory over Olympia at Ingersoll Stadium in a Narrows League tournament match.

Both teams progress to Saturday tournament games at Mount Tahoma.

The teams took the field on a chilly, rainy evening with identical 5-2-3 records. Olympia and Stadium played to a 1-1 tie when they met in September in a Narrows regular-season match.

Stadium’s Taylyr McLean found the net from just right of the goal after an assist by Sasha Dini 2 minutes, 23 seconds into the match, and that was it for the scoring, though Olympia created numerous goal opportunities in the second half.

“I thought we played more of the soccer out here tonight,” Stadium coach Lyndon Harrhy said. “We passed the ball well, and I also thought we defended well.”

Stadium was the faster, more aggressive team in the first half, consistently beating the Bears to the ball.

Olympia assistant coach Travis Larson said after the early Stadium goal his team played defensively.

“The first goal affected our attack,” he said.

In the second half, the Bears had the better of the action, but couldn’t dent the net.

Olympia’s best chance came early in the second half when Sammi Thompson centered the ball to Lexi Fesenbek in front of the goal. Fesenbek’s try popped up in the air.

At the 22:50 mark, Olympia’s Deidra Woodward narrowly missed from a tough angle close to the left side of the goal.

At 12:04, Thompson missed wide right after a good pass from Fesenbek. That was the Bears’ last good chance, though they kept the pressure on through the frantic final minutes.

“We had our chances to tie it up,” Larson said. “I like how we fought in the second half, the whole 40 minutes.”

Stadium, by winning, gets the 1:30 p.m. match Saturday at Mount Tahoma against Bellarmine Prep. Olympia plays Wilson at 9:30 a.m. Saturday in a loser-out match, also at Mount Tahoma.

“I like our chances going forward,” Larson said.