On paper, the Hawks of Hockinson seemed poised to step into Beaver Stadium and add another win.
But the Woodland Beavers capitalized on opportunities to beat the Hawks 2-1 on Tuesday, Oct. 14. Hockinson sat at 6-2 in league while the Beavers sat at 4-4 in league entering the match.
In the first half, Woodland’s Ruby Ingle beat Hockinson goaltender Audrey Armstrong for a walk-in goal to take a surprising lead. The Hawks responded quickly in the second half as Kaili Humphrey scored to even it at one apiece. Woodland would capitalize on a corner kick that found the twine by Jillian Lutzenberger to gain the advantage and maintain their lead 2-1 until the final whistle.
The win means a lot to coach Jeff Flanagan.
“Honestly, these girls have been overachieving all year,” he said. “We had some key injuries to some veteran players that we thought, ‘OK, can we survive this?’ And there’s this next man up, and you ask your teams to play for one another, and I think that’s what we’re starting to see. They’re just working hard and doing the little things that matter, and sometimes you just get a good result.”
Flanagan highlighted the success of Hockinson’s season as a diminishing factor to team morale entering matchups against opponents that the Beavers girls' soccer program hasn’t beaten in some time.
“That’s a great Hockinson team,” he said. “And so the girls are saying we haven’t beat them for they don’t even know how long and so obviously we tell them before the game, ‘Hey, you know, they’re girls just like you. They go to school, they put on their socks one at a time, and so go out and compete and see what can happen.’ So obviously we were thrilled with the result because soccer’s a fun game and can go either way.”
The swings of momentum can sometimes flatten the sails and alter the players' mindset to the point where mistakes can be made. But this time around, the Beavers just kept at it.
“They got that goal early on in the second half, and I was like. ‘Oh no, is this it?’” Flanagan said. “And you saw the girls dig in like it’s at those times, do you fold or do you just step up. It’s exciting to see that they stayed together and kept playing hard.”
For Flanagan, he enters the mindset of “any team on any given night.”
The win on Oct. 14 sparked confidence in that Flanagan reflected on it as he said, “Well, we beat that team, we can play with that team. So I think it just gives us confidence now in every game instead of having the mindset of, ‘oh well, let’s go have fun and know that the result might not be in our favor.’”
The Beavers lost 1-0 to the league-topping Columbia River Rapids on Thursday, Oct. 16, who are 10-0 in 2A Greater St. Helens League play. But the Beavers held the Rapids to just one goal, even though Columbia River can be a team that rapidly creates an insurmountable goal differential. The Beavers sat tied for fourth in the league standings after last week at 5-5 and played Hudson’s Bay High School on Tuesday, Oct. 21, but results were unavailable at press time. They next play at Ridgefield on Thursday, Oct. 23, at 7 p.m.
The Hawks followed up with a 2-0 win on Thursday, Oct. 16, against the Washougal Panthers to snap a two-game losing streak. Hockinson sits at second in the league standings and played R.A. Long High School on Tuesday, Oct. 21, with results unavailable at press time. They next battle the Columbia River Rapids at home on Thursday, Oct. 23, at 7 p.m.
