The Klahowya girls soccer team capped off a nearly perfect season by defeating Lynden Christian 3-1 in the state championship game Nov. 19 at Shoreline.
The Eagles, who finished the season 19-1-1, came into the game with vengeance on their mind.
“It was for revenge for last year,” Eagle player Amira Lyons said. “We could have won last year, and I really wanted this year for [teammate senior Victoria Peters] since it’s her last year.”
The Eagles struggled for the first 20 minutes against the Lyncs. After a missed chance for the Eagles, Lynden Christian counter-attacked and scored on a breakaway 20 minutes into the game.
“Our back line was down on themselves, but I told them to pick it up,” Peters said. “It’s still early in the game. We knew we can come back and shake it off.”
Lyons had fire in her eyes after the Lyncs scored. She took matters into her own hands, or feet, and scored the tying goal with six minutes left in the first half.
“I saw they weren’t giving us enough space so I knew I could take them on,” Lyons said. “I didn’t even know it went in until halftime. I slide-tackled it, and it squeezed inside the post.”
Coach Troy Oelschlager knew once the game was tied, Klahowya had the game handled. But the Eagles had to deal with a larger, more physical Lyncs team.
“We knew their game plan going in was to play physically in this game,” Oelschlager said. “Sometimes the best-skilled team doesn’t always win because skilled teams cannot deal with physical teams.”
Klahowya used Lynden Christian’s physicality to its advantage. Lyons began to juke defenders before being ripped to the ground several times. Peters stepped up to take the free kick and nailed it in the upper right corner of the net to give the Eagles a 2-1 lead.
The teams were deadlocked for nearly the rest of the game. However, Klahowya earned a final goal when Bailey Watland fired a shot off a rebound from a corner kick.
The Eagles’ defense held on to take the victory and bring home their third state title in program history, the first since 2014.
“The girls worked so hard all offseason,” Oelschlager said. “A lot of cards were against them because of the league we play in. To be able to do what we did this weekend was phenomenal.”
Skyler Seagalle takes a shot on Lynden Christian’s goalie.
