Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Gorillas clinch state berth with 2-1 win
Davenport eighth-grader Charlotte Soliday and Northwest Christian junior Addison Fazio fight for possession in the District 7 title game Tuesday, Oct. 31.
DAVENPORT-For the second straight year, the Gorilla soccer team is headed to state. This year, it's by virtue of a District 7 championship clinched with a 2-1 victory over Northwest Christian (Colbert) in a Halloween game that was eerily like the regular season finale played between the two rivals a week prior.
With the win, Davenport clinched a spot in the 1B/2B state playoffs, while Northwest Christian will have to win its way in during District 6/7 crossovers.
Like last week, Davenport jumped out to a quick first half lead. This time, it was courtesy of eighth-grader Charlotte Soliday.
The youngest Solidays' deep shot from the left side curved just over the NWC keeper's head to give Davenport a 1-0 lead with 28:26 left in the first half.
"When I got it back, I knew it was going to be high, because it was coming at me really fast and I'm really good at kicking it and it going up," Soliday said. "So it went up, and she was looking at it, like, 'oh, I'm going to get this,' and it went over her, and I'm pretty good with those shots. I've done it all the time to my goalies, and they're like, 'oh, that's not fair,' so I was hoping that it would go in and it did."
Davenport executed on offense again to extend its lead. Taking advantage of a corner kick opportunity, Harper Suttenfield touched the corner from Jensyn Jacobsen to Glenna Soliday.
Soliday converted the open chance to put Davenport up 2-0 with 22:05 left in the first half.
"We talked about, if we were aggressive (and) took shots early, that we'd have a good chance to win," Davenport head coach Monty Soliday said. "We wanted to put goals on the board early and make them try to recover, and we did."
There was no scoring for 20 minutes, but Davenport was inches away from a 3-0 lead when Jacobsen's deep shot clanked off the top post.
Instead, Davenport committed a mental error by touching the ball with a hand deep near its own goal, offering NWC a rather close free kick.
Claire Wichman made the Gorillas pay for the mistake, converting the free shot to make it 2-1 just before halftime.
"We were reeling. Kind of made me reel a little bit," Monty Soliday said. "We had total control and to give up something kind of bad right at the end, especially on something that might not have even had to happen...it just was unlucky."
Jacobsen was removed from the game by an official shortly before the half ended due to concussion concerns. This put more pressure on the Davenport defense in the second half, but the Gorillas held tough for 37 minutes.
Then, the Crusaders got a corner opportunity. A header shot looked certain to tie the game, but it sailed just over the goal to keep Davenport up with 3:14 remaining, and the Crusaders didn't seriously challenge again.
"We had to be 100% on defense, 100% on someone and cutting off the sideline," Charlotte Soliday said.
Davenport's victory did ensure the Gorillas are one of 12 teams heading to the 1B/2B state playoffs, but the team is still playing a crossover for seeding against District 6 champion Tonasket.
The Gorillas played the Tigers in the regular season and won easily, 4-0. This rematch between two statebound teams is at 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 3 at Gonzaga Prep.
"We've played a lot of the top teams," Monty Soliday said. "I like our chances. Northwest is one of the best teams too, so I'm sure we might see them again another time and have to try to do the same thing, but our outlook's pretty good."
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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