Cedarcrest spoils South Whidbey soccer team’s Senior Night

Published 1:00 pm Sunday, October 23, 2011

LANGLEY — The conference-leading Cedarcrest Red Wolves only needed two minutes of soft defense from the Falcons to win Tuesday night, 2-1.

For a scoreless, tied game on South Whidbey’s Senior Night, the Falcons lost all momentum at the start of the second half.

“It just got really dead quiet out here for about 10 minutes, that’s kind of what did it,” said Falcon head coach Ben Rusch.

Cedarcrest (12-1 in Cascade Conference, 14-1 overall) scored in a second-half flurry and South Whidbey’s sudden rally was just as quickly stopped.

After the Red Wolves scored back-to-back goals, the Falcons (4-9, 6-9) answered with one of their own on a score by senior midfielder Cortney Fredriksen, assisted by sophomore midfielder Maia Sparkman.

“After we were down two (goals) and it was Senior Night, I just saw the perfect pass coming from the midfielder, who was Maia, and she played the perfect ball,” Fredriksen said. “It bounced right off my foot.”

The goal was a special score for the South Whidbey senior, although she’d rather had a few more.

“It feels amazing,” Fredriksen said. “I was waiting for that all night. I had that coming.”

Ball possession was largely controlled by Cedarcrest, which took 17 shots on goal against South Whidbey’s five.

The Falcons’ defenders kept pace with the blitzing Red Wolves forwards and midfielders who took eight shots on goal in the first half. Rusch played extra midfielders to congest the middle of the field, forcing the Red Wolves to play on the sidelines and work back inside for their shots.

Their shots became closer to actual goals with each kick.

The first one was deflected by Falcon senior defender Brianna Haimes, went off her foot, hit the crossbar and bounced out of bounds. Next, a header on a corner kick missed the left post by less than 1 foot.

Haimes deflected another shot. A one-on-one was stopped by Falcon junior defender Jenna Kaik on a foul. That set up a penalty kick that sailed above the crossbar.

The scoring happened in a three-minute window. After an extended halftime to celebrate South Whidbey’s seven seniors, Cedarcrest continued its barrage on Falcon goalkeeper Ellie Greene with six shots on goal in the first nine minutes.

“I’m really excited about her,” Rusch said. “She hasn’t played since seventh grade. She’s just one of those girls who has an athletic knack.”

Then, the Cascade Conference’s best team — which has at least a goal in every game — scored in the 50th minute. Red Wolves midfielder Maggie Pleis beat Falcon defender Jamie Rodden and kicked a soft chip shot over Greene for the first score of the night.

“It was just a lapse that the ball played across the middle and the defender wasn’t quite tight enough on the forward running through and she just gets a touch and it’s in,” Rusch said.

Less than two minutes later, Gwen Bieck scored from 20 yards out. Her shot tipped Greene’s fingers, went off the right post and into the net for a 2-0 Red Wolves lead.

“With that kind of quality, you give them an inch and they’ll punish you,” Rusch said.

That was enough for Fredriksen, who answered with a goal in the same minute.

“We know that we have the capability to beat this team,” she said. “They got lucky a couple of times.”

Stopping several goals and shots on goal and reducing the Red Wolves scoring in half from their previous match was insufficient for Haimes.

The way the team responded to a sudden two goal deficit, however, made her proud.

“It got us more excited, because it’s kind of our fault when they scored because we’re the last people,” she said. “Last time they beat us 4-0, we’re pretty proud that we held them to this.”

The match was a must-win for the Falcons to qualify for the district playoffs. Their postseason chances were slim as they traveled to play King’s on Thursday, then host Archbishop Murphy for the season finale Saturday.

“We were fighting for it. We were wanting to get to districts,” Fredriksen said Tuesday. “We only have to win two games.”

Against a fourth-place King’s team Thursday night, the Falcons were shut out 0-3, effectively ending the chance to make the playoffs.

Both King’s and Archbishop Murphy are top-four teams in the conference and have winning records.

For first-year head coach Rusch, who is also a Falcon alumnus, the game marked a turnaround from the first half of the season. The Red Wolves scored four goals on the Falcons in the first match, and kept the islanders at bay for a 4-0 win.

“Once the season restarted, I told them ‘It’s a whole new season. You can make whatever you want out of it,’” Rusch said.