Kamiakin, Chiawana soccer squads set to begin state runs

Seventeen up and 17 down.

The season couldn’t have gone any better for the undefeated Kamiakin High School soccer team to this point. But now is the time when banners are earned and legacies left.

The Braves will host the Mountain View Thunder (11-3-3) at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Lampson Stadium in the first round of the Class 3A state playoffs.

It’s Kamiakin’s first state appearance since 2015, and a win would put the team one game away from its first trip to the championship weekend at Sumner’s Sparks Stadium since ‘13, when the current senior class was in 8th Grade. The Braves lost to Liberty (Issaquah) in the title game that year, and the Southridge Suns were state runners-up the three seasons since then, meaning a Kennewick team has played in the championship tilt the past four years.

Kamiakin coach Chris Erikson has never taken an undefeated team to the playoffs before in her 31 years at the helm. If her team gets past Mountain View on Tuesday, it will host either Mt. Spokane (9-8-1) or Lakeside of Seattle (11-5-2) this weekend in the quarterfinals.

4A

The Chiawana Riverhawks (14-5) will play the Big 9-champion Wenatchee Panthers (14-2), also at 5 p.m. Tuesday, at the Apple Bowl in Wenatchee. It’s the Riverhawks’ third straight state berth, which they earned by topping Lewis and Clark 4-0 on Saturday in a loser-out District 8 game.

The Panthers — who are 0-3 all-time at state — look to be tough customers in the first round, with their only losses this year coming against West Valley of Yakima (10-5-2) — which they went 2-1 against on the season — and undefeated GSL champ Central Valley (15-0).

An era of Chiawana soccer will conclude at season’s end, with MCC Player of the Year Summer Yates now a senior. The forward is a fixture on the U.S. Women’s National Junior Teams, and led the MCC in scoring this year despite missing two weeks of the season while touring China with the U.S.’s U-19 squad.

Yates has led the Riverhawks to three of their four state appearances in school history, though the team has never won a playoff game.

The winner of this one will host either Lake Stevens (12-2-1) or Kennedy Catholic (14-1-3) this weekend in the quarterfinals.

This story was originally published November 6, 2017 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Kamiakin, Chiawana soccer squads set to begin state runs."