Top, Mount Si’s Miranda Rawlings jockeys for the ball with a Liberty defender in one of her mid-game pushes for the goal. Middle, Mount Si players celebrate their second goal during play Oct. 2. Below, Mount Si’s Sophia Rouches runs down the ball versus Liberty. Seth Truscott/Staff Photos

Mount Si girls soccer players knew they needed to find scoring opportunities. Last Tuesday, Oct. 2, they turned the corner on that need: Witness senior Miranda Rawlings’ homing instincts toward the Patriot’s corner of the field. The Wildcat captain fed both of Mount Si’s goals on the night.

The Nevada-signed Rawlings is hungry for more.

“I’m trying to shoot, but I’m also trying to get other people involved,” she says. That means frequent cross-passes to Mount Si players jockeying for shots on goal.

Despite a few tough losses recently, Rawlings sees positives.

“We’re playing together, and we’re playing long balls quickly,” she says. “We’re doing what works.” When things suffer, she says, is when Mount Si tries to do too much.

Against Liberty

Mount Si fell 3-2 on Tuesday to the Patriots, one of the most physical opponents they’ve faced thus far.

The Patriots scored first. Liberty freshman Jordan Hemmen managed to fire a deflected ball past Wildcat goalie Lauren Solene just before halftime. The Patriots struck again shortly in the second half, with Kali Youngdahl and Jaquelyn Anderson putting shots in. Youngdahl’s shot was deflected by Solene, but managed to find net.

Then, a fired-up Mount Si team, led by Rawlings, got things going in response. A Rawlings pass to Claire Johnson got the Wildcats on the board around the middle of the second. Around the 71st minute, Rawlings fired a cross to K.K. Wallace, who scored the second goal. But, despite some intense bids around the Pats’ goal, time ran out on the chance at a win.

Mount Si Head Coach Darren Brown named Rawlings, Wallace and Johnson his players of the match.

“I appreciate the way we fought back as the momentum switched in a hurry,” Brown wrote on the team’s website. “If we had 90 minutes who knows what could have happened.”

The coach wasn’t fased by the final score.

“This, to me, was the best team they faced,” Brown told the Record. Plus, there’s half a season to go.

If Brown had his druthers, Rawlings would get dozens of shooting opportunities a night.

“If she does that, we’re going to get results,” he said. Now, “it’s getting everybody else going.”

“If we start finishing early, it’s going to start coming for us,” Rawlings says. “We need to keep ourselves in it.”

• Mount Si soccer hosts Sammamish at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 11. This game is Senior Night for the Wildcats.