Southridge girls soccer team closes in on ultimate goal

Last season, the Southridge High School girls soccer team’s best defense was, at times, a good offense.

The Suns fell behind in several matches, but with forward McKaley Goffard scoring eight postseason goals, they came back to win most of them.

This season, there is no Goffard.

The Eastern Washington University-bound junior is out for the year with a torn ACL, leaving Southridge no choice but to find another way back to the Class 3A state playoffs.

The Suns (18-2) did it by tightening up on defense. Rather than embracing a bend-but-don’t-break philosophy, they resolved to communicate better, react quicker and not lean on offense to bail them out late in games.

“I think it is making us better because, last year, we relied on (Goffard) a little bit more than we do now,” central defender Haley Thomas said. “Now that we’ve learned to play without her, I’m excited to see what happens next year when we do have her back.”

After allowing only 13 goals in 20 games this season, what Suns coach Greg Sambrano calls “the back six” has stepped up to that challenge.

“It’s probably the strength of our team. There’s been a lot of growth,” Sambrano said. “The cool thing about this team is their physical makeup. They don’t settle for anything less than excellence.”

The back line of Bri Hunting, Kendall Pope, Emily Russell and Thomas gets help from holding midfielders Kelly Brown and Emma Schutt. All but Hunting are juniors.

And of course, one cannot forget the contribution of goalkeeper Tiara Valadez, who is enjoying her first state playoff run after an injury prevented her from playing in the state semifinals last season.

“I wanted (a return trip to the semis) more than anything in the world,” Valadez said. “I knew this team was capable of making it back. I had full faith we would make it.”

It helps that many of the Southridge players are teammates in club soccer.

Thomas, Schutt, Russell, Brown and Pope compete for the Three Rivers 98 Black team that played for a national club soccer title in 2013 and reached the U.S. Youth Soccer Far West Regional championships in 2014.

“Last year, we were solid. This year, we’re fixing every little mistake we used to make,” Pope said. “We’re learning more, and we’ve grown closer this year. That’s a big factor in our play.”

Trust is a big reason for Southridge’s chemistry on defense. That and strong communication.

“(Chemistry) helps so much. You know what they’re going to do with the ball,” Brown said. “We’re always in sync, so we can talk things out. We’re really connected as a team.”

Russell said there still are times when Southridge trails during a match, but the team is confident enough that it can come back on any squad.

“It doesn’t always work the way it’s supposed to work,” Russell said. “We’ve had our ups and downs, but we’re known for working through our kinks. After that, we come out on top.”

Schutt believes that the Suns are also one of the more talented teams around in terms of pure skill and team speed.

“We’re doing really good, especially now that we’re playing a lot better teams (the Suns went 3-0 against Kamiakin this year and beat Auburn Riverside and Holy Names in the first two rounds of state),” Schutt said. “We’re really fast on defense. If we get beat, we can easily get back.”

Getting back — to the Final Four, that is — has been one of the biggest goals of the team this season. Now that they are back — Southridge will face Arlington (16-4) at 2 p.m. Friday at Sparks Stadium in Puyallup in the first Class 3A semifinal — the Suns look forward to taking one more step toward the ultimate prize in high school sports: a state championship.

“To finally be here is like a dream,” Hunting said. “We’ve gotten all the banners and trophies we can get. There’s just one more to achieve, and I definitely think we can do it.”

This story was originally published November 18, 2015 at 8:11 PM with the headline "Southridge girls soccer team closes in on ultimate goal."