Auburn Riverside soccer comes alive in second half, tops Olympia in Class 4A state quarterfinals, 1-0

Olympia High School came into its 4A state quarterfinal girls soccer match with a lower seed than Auburn-Riverside and a lesser overall record.

But Ravens coach Paul Lewis knew the Bears would bring something his team would have to match to win.

“Olympia’s a heck of a team and one of the things I told my kids was no matter what, they play with a ton of heart,” Lewis said.

Sure enough, Olympia controlled the early momentum.

“They came out and won all the 50-50 balls, all the duels, causing havoc and pressure and making us a little frantic,” Lewis added.

The Bears outshot Auburn-Riverside, 6-4, in the first half on a cloudy, mostly rainless, Saturday afternoon at Auburn Memorial Stadium. They forced Ravens’ goalkeeper Bella Reckling to make four saves to keep the game scoreless at intermission.

Then, after the Ravens ran through an encouraging gauntlet of fellow students to reach their locker room at halftime, after they listened to Lewis’ pep talk during the break, something changed.

“We’ve been a second half team,” Lewis said. “We came out with a real belief the second half’s going to be ours.”

Auburn-Riverside came out with more aggression and creativity. Just three minutes into the second half, freshman forward Samiah Shell took a long pass ahead from Kiana Gutierrez and bounced it just beyond the grasp of diving Bears’ goalkeeper Lyric Tinnel.

“Kiana found me on the switch and got the ball through to me,” Shell said. “I was figuring out if I wanted to take a touch. The game was so intense, I decided to take a one touch and it went in.”

Shell aimed for the back post but didn’t reach it.

“Luckily I hit it hard enough that it went through the keeper’s hands,” she said.

It would be the only goal of the match as Auburn-Riverside’s 1-0 victory advances the Ravens to a semifinal against Inglemoor on Friday at 6 p.m. at Sparks Stadium in Puyallup.

“The energy from the crowd and the halftime talk from our coach turned it around,” Shell said. “We reminded ourselves this is our only year with this group of seniors and we want to make the best of it.”

The goal reminded Lewis of Gutierrez’s overtime goal that helped beat Enumclaw, 1-0, in overtime of their opening round state game.

The game featured only three corner kicks, but each provided some tension.

Gutierrez put both of Auburn-Riverside’s right in front of the net, where plenty of her teammates were waiting to convert, but both times Tinnel broke through the crowd to two-hand the ball out of harm’s way.

With nine minutes to play, Olympia’s junior defender Landry McCann also dropped a corner into the middle of the box, but Ravens midfielder Kayla Rydberg headed it away.

The Bears (10-6-4) last, best chance to equalize came with six minutes remaining. Midfielder Lauren Forster went on a run through the middle of Auburn-Riverside’s defense, but Reckling closed the gap and snatched the ball away before Forster could shoot.

Auburn Riverside (19-1-1) eventually took more total shots, 13-9, but more of Olympia’s were on goal. Reckling finished with six saves and Tinnel four.