By CASEY OLSON, The Mirror
For the first time in school history, the Todd Beamer High School girls soccer team will play at the Class 4A State Tournament.
The Titans downed Federal Way School District rival Thomas Jefferson, 1-0, Saturday afternoon in a loser-out, winner-to-state West Central District game at Art Crate Field in Spanaway.
The district tournament hadn’t been kind to the Titans in years past. Saturday’s win over TJ was Beamer’s third consecutive appearance in the winner-to-state, loser-out match at district. The last two resulted in season-ending losses in 2005 and 2006.
It was Beamer’s second win over the Raiders (9-3-5) this season. The Titans (17-1-0) blitzed TJ, which finished third in the South Puget Sound League North Division, 3-0 in the preseason.
Beamer’s Jordan Salisbury tallied the only goal of the game in the 15th minute on a pass from Megan Miller. The goal was Salisbury’s sixth of the season.
The Titan defense, led by goalkeeper Maia Kurnik, made the goal stand by shutting down the TJ offense. It was Beamer’s 14th shutout of the year in 18 matches.
The win qualified the Titans for the opening-round of the 16-team state tournament. Beamer traveled to Battle Ground High School last night (after press time) to take on Heritage, the champions of the Greater St. Helen’s League. The winner of the Beamer-Heritage game will take on the winner of a match tonight between Kentwood and Lake Stevens on either Friday or Saturday in the quarterfinals.
The win over Jefferson on Saturday afternoon came after Beamer’s first loss of the season, which might have been one of those times that a loss actually helped a team.
The Titans had their perfect season ruined last week in the South Puget Sound League championship game by the Kentwood Conquerors. The North Division champs downed Beamer, 2-1, to claim the league’s No. 1 seed into the West Central District Tournament.
So a rematch with Kentwood in the Class 4A state quarterfinals wouldn’t be lacking any emotion for the Titans. The SPSL championship game was the first time this season that a team had scored more than one goal on the Titans’ defense. Beamer rolled through the SPSL South season basically untouched, outscoring its opponents by a ridiculous margin of 71-3 with 13 shutouts.
Beamer has been led all season by the offensive duo of Brittany Orr and Holland Crook.
Orr leads the Titans in points with 22, which includes 15 goals and seven assists. Crook was the leading goal scorer for Beamer with 18 goals. Miller tallied nine goals and nine assists and defender Nicole Peterson had seven goals and five assists.
Sports editor Casey Olson: 925-5565, sports@fedwaymirror.com
