Capital and CK stay tied at top
Nothing was settled at Ingersoll Stadium in Olympia on Thursday night.
In a much-anticipated battle of Class 3A Narrows girls soccer unbeaten teams, Capital turned away a withering barrage from Central Kitsap’s high-powered offense but couldn’t generate much offense of its own, leading to a 1-1 tie and increasing the importance of the rematch at the end of the month,
“Our defenders were definitely the MVPs tonight,” said Capital coach Adriana Montes after goalkeeper Rachael Cumberland recorded eight saves and Chloe Lamenzo made her presence felt on play after play. “Those two, Paige Murray, Galen McDonald, Shannon Rogowski, our whole back line was outstanding.”
Montes thought her offense might have been a bit fatigued and banged up from a tough match earlier in the week against North Thurston.
“We have a dynamic offense that can really possess the ball well, find feet and put plays together. Any player on my team can score a goal,” she said. “We didn’t show that tonight, hopefully we will when we go up there.”
Central Kitsap’s aggressive offense dominated everywhere but on the scoreboard. CK blasted 17 shots to Capital’s four and had a 5-0 edge in corner kicks.
Despite the barrage by the visiting Cougars, the hometown Cougars led most of the half. Capital scored first in the fourth minute on a breakaway goal by Madison Midstokke after a long pass out of traffic by Rachel Wofford.
It took 29 minutes of play, mostly contested in the Capital end before CK’s Olivia Krug split two defenders and grounded a hard shot just inside the right post to make it 1-1.
Central Kitsap appeared poised to take the lead in the 63rd minute, when Melissa Johnson made a run up the left side and crossed the ball to Lauren Hudson in the box, who spun and drove a hard shot toward the goal from less than 10 yards away, but Cumberland went to her knees to capture the ball.
Less than five minutes later, Cumberland shone again as she deflected a Central Kitsap corner kick up and off the crossbar before clearing it.
This story was originally published October 2, 2015 at 1:35 PM with the headline "Capital and CK stay tied at top."