POULSBO — The line in the grass has all but been drawn for the North Kitsap Vikings girls’ soccer team.
At the season’s midpoint, North Kitsap has soundly defeated four Narrows’ squads — Shelton, Bremerton, Olympic and Port Angeles. But the team has endured two losses (South Kitsap and Central Kitsap) and one tie with Gig Harbor to put the Vikings at number four in the league.
As the second half of league gets underway, the stakes go up each game. The first big test will be Oct. 12 when the Vikings host the CK Cougars, the only team this year that has handed NK a decisive loss.
North (5-2-1 league, 5-2-2 overall) has been on a tear of late, tying the league-leading Tides 2-2 last week and Tuesday beating the Olympic Trojans Tuesday 5-0. Senior Megan Hyte scored her second hat trick of the year and senior Rachel Parcells and Junior Amber Grable each added tallies in the game.
“They played really well — it was probably the best came so far,” NK coach Teri Ishihara said. “Lately ,they’ve been improving, especially in passing, looping the ball from side to side, playing it up.”
North also dispatched Port Angeles Thursday with a 3-0 win. Senior Kim Skelly notched two goals and Hyte added a third against the Roughriders.
The Vikings are utilizing speed and aggressive play to win games, two skills the team knew it had before the season began. But one major change has been moving senior Skelly from defense to forward, a move that has paid dividends, Ishihara commented.
“When I put her up there, it puts a lot of pressure on (our opponent’s) defense,” Ishihara said of Skelly. “She creates a lot of opportunities.”
Skelly’s position on defense has been filled by sophomore Sarah Stephenson, allowing the senior to move up front and often join the Vikes’ attack, which includes fellow senior Hyte and her sister, Stephanie.
Ishihara said she’s also been surprised and impressed by mid-field play this year, namely Lindsey O’neil-Dewing, who returned to the team this year after studying abroad a year ago.
“She started off slow because she hadn’t been playing,” Ishihara said. “But I told her after the (Olympic) game she’s got her game back.”
The Narrows’ first place slot currently belongs to Gig Harbor, and judging by North’s performance with the Tides — a 2-2 tie last week — the Vikings have good reason to believe they can stick with the pack. The top four teams are also within four points of one another.
“They feel they should be at least either two or three (in league),” Ishihara said of her team. “They really think they should be (number) one.”
To prepare for the season’s second half, improving the defense has been a primary goal for the team during practice, as the Vikings’ only harsh loss of the year — a 6-0 defeat by the Cougars — saw continued penetration of the Viking backfield.
“Against CK, they have something to prove to themselves,” Ishihara said.
