The historic run of the Mount Si Wildcat girls soccer team continued last Wednesday night as the Wildcats made their way to Shoreline Stadium for a first-round game with the Shorecrest Scots. Since 1988, no Mount Si girls team had made it out of the first round of the state playoffs, but thanks to clutch goals and stingy defense, that all changed.

Goals by Mariana Zanella and Jessica Oliver lifted the Wildcats to a 2-0 victory.

“We pushed so hard,” Oliver said. “We wanted to win this game so bad. We worked well as a team. This is a new surface for us; it was interesting to get used to, and our touches had to be on.”

Things started out tough in the first few minutes as Shorecrest penetrated deep in the Mount Si zone and threatened to score. But after that, the Wildcats went to work and put on a great defensive display. Mount Si defenders stayed with the ball for much of the first half, forcing the Scots, of Wesco 3A/4A, to turn the ball over numerous times. That tough defense and ball control play paid off in the 29th minute. After two excellent scoring chances by the Wildcats earlier in the half, the third try was the charm as Zanella took a great feed from Mariah Stevens and punched the ball into the lower left corner of the net past Shorecrest freshman goalie Caroline Towles.

In the 46th minute, Oliver took a feed from Zanella and fired it into the lower left corner. It appeared initially that the shot was going to go just left of the net, but it found its way in, surprising most Mount Si observers who celebrated the team’s newfound fortune.

In the 59th and 60th minutes, the Scots had great chances to cut their deficit in half, but shots went off the goalpost, Wildcat goalkeeper Jessica Blessard’s fingertips and the crossbar. Soon after, play was stopped after senior defender Kali Roestel was injured. She was helped off the field after a few minutes, and Mount Si coach Darren Brown told assembled media afterward that Roestel had suffered a “deep, deep bruise.”

Mount Si settled down afterwards, and the historic shutout was complete. Camas was next.

Blessard chalked up the win to preparation. “At Tuesday night’s practice, we worked pretty much the whole time on winning balls in the air because of this flat turf, so the defense was just really on top of it today,” Blessard said.

Friday night, the Wildcats played their hearts out in front of a large crowd, but it was two sophomores who destroyed the dream.

Christina Stulbarg scored on a wicked blast off a feed from Taylor Wehring in the 85th minute, and the Camas Papermakers went home with a 1-0 overtime win that ended the Wildcats’ season at 12-3-4.

“Well, they were under a lot of pressure,” said elated Camas coach Roland Minder. “Taylor was able to cross and lay the ball in for Christina. Christina was coming off of the far, far post side and just was able to sneak it in.”

With a crowd that was very large, Mount Si made a statement, but fell just short on the scoreboard.

Both teams played very well, and it was a great defensive battle. The Wildcats had their chances, but it was Stulbarg who got it done when it counted, sending Camas to Tacoma with a 17-0-2 mark, the lone unbeaten team in the state.

Brown was awed by the large crowd. “This was the most amazing soccer crowd I’ve ever had coaching soccer in my whole eight years of coaching high-school ball. This is something I’ll never forget,” Brown said.

Stevens agreed.

“The crowd was huge. I was surprised,” she said.

With only four seniors graduating, the team is likely to make another run next season at state. That said, those seniors will be missed. “I’m going to really miss my four seniors. These four seniors were very special to me, and they were the best leaders I’ve ever had,” Brown said.