SHORELINE — A few days after stealing a win against Overlake in penalty kicks, the Eagles found themselves on the other end, falling to King’s Way Christian in a shootout in the 1A state semifinals.
Knights keeper Hannah Moats made two saves on Klahowya’s five shots and her teammates scored on all four of their opportunities. King’s Way won the shootout 4-3 and the match, 2-1. Alyssa Peters, Kylie Woodrum and Kayden Eckley all converted their shot for Klahowya.
“It was like last week,” head coach Troy Oelschlager said. “Overlake, I thought, had the better run of play on us and we came out on top because of the P.K.s.”
Klahowya will play for third place at 10 a.m. Saturday at Shoreline Stadium. The team will take on Deer Park, which lost 2-1 in overtime to La Salle in the other semifinal match.
“We don’t have a third place trophy in our case yet,” Oelschlager said.
The Eagles did an excellent job containing Washington State-commit MacKenzie Ellertson, holding her to one shot on target in the game. Kate Streck drew the difficult assignment of marking Ellertson, and she was up to the task. Streck and her fellow teammates were able to swarm her the moment she got the ball throughout the match.
Unfortunately, that one shot went in.
Ellertson gave King’s Way a 1-0 lead early in the second half on a long, low shot that found its way into the back of the net. It was the only shot the Knights mustered in 90 minutes of play.
“We came in with a great game plan and we executed it to perfection,” Oelschlager said. “Unfortunately we just couldn’t create enough offensively to put it away.
Klahowya answered three minutes later. Kayden Eckley made an outstanding pass up the middle to Alyssa Peters, who was able to tap the ball past the rushing keeper and slide it into the net. It was her 17th goal of the season.
The Eagles continued to dominate play, and they created a few more chances, but weren’t able to put themselves ahead. The match remained scoreless throughout the rest of the second half and the two five-minute overtime periods, sending it to penalties.
“I think that we played well, it’s just not our day,” Woodrum said.
— Mark Krulish is a reporter for Kitsap News Group. He can be reached at mkrulish@soundpublishing.com. Follow him on Twitter @MKrulishKDN.
