By Ed Shepherd
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

Kennedy Catholic and Highline went at it on the pitch, with a lot of good soccer played back and forth, despite the final score showing the Lancers beating the Pirates, 6-0, at Valley Ridge in SeaTac.
The Lancers improved to 5-0 in the Seamount League while the Pirates dropped to 3-5 on the season.

"We played a clean game, and controlled things well," said Lancers coach Doug Stamnes. "I don't know if we had any saves, but they sure had a lot."

The Lancers' freshman keeper, Jacqueline Seifert, made two, maybe three, in the game, while the Pirates' keeper made more like 10.
The Lancers out-shot the Pirates in the first half, 6-2, and 9-3 in the second.

But, also for the Pirates, their starting goalkeeper, Makenna Hadaller, missed being in there the first three goals because of Hadaller having missed a team practice the day before. That caused Jeb Binns to enforce a team policy, no practice means no starting the game.

So the start to the game was effected by that fact, somewhat. The Lancers scored three goals on the Pirates' non-starting keeper in the 8th, 10th and 12th minute mark of the first half, leading 3-0.

"We were without our starting keeper to start the game, and that hurt us," said Pirates sophomore center midfielder Mary Loy, who moved the ball around nicely, side to side, with good foot control, dribbling this game for the Pirates."

Further proof that the Pirates' regular keeper, Hadaller, made a difference, she quickly saved two shots, diving style. Once she entered around the 15-minute time of the contest. Even more proof of her difference-making ability, the Pirates didn't allow another goal until the 48th minute, which, incidentally, meant the Lancers didn't score their fourth goal until eight minutes into the second half since each half is 40 minutes long.

"I think, we did pretty good, we held on defense well," said Loy. "We didn't panic and start yelling at each other when we got behind. We continued to communicate positively."

So the Pirates improved their play after the first 10 minutes of scoring action on them,that is noted.
But...

The Lancers were going to win this game, regardless of Hadaller's fine play in goal, in the first half, as the shots just kept pummeling her all game long. And though there was good play controlling the ball from both sides in this match, the Lancers controlled the sphere more, like, about a 75/25 percent split for time of possession, if one can measure such a stat.

"Kennedy did well as always," said Hadaller, whose team lost to the Lancers for the second time this season. The first loss was 6-1 in mid-September. "We have a hard time against them."

For the season, against Seamount competition, the undefeated Lancers have 29 goals for andonly one goal against, in its five league games. The next closest team, Renton, has scored 35 goals for, but has 18 against them. Highline is fifth in the standings and has 20 goals for and 28 goals against.

So, as almost usual, the Lancers are in a league of their own. Sans last year's second place finish in the Seamount, they have won league in dominating fashion year in and year out under Stamnes' coaching rule, with the Mount Rainier Rams having won a league title a time or two, too, but the Rams now play 4A soccer in the South Puget Sound League.
In a game of a good amount of scoring for the Lancers, one of their freshmen, a forward/midfielder type player, Yianna French, listed the names quite easily of her teammates' scorers after the game, helping the reporter get right all that scoring, which can be a daunting task with young ladies flying around on the soccer field, passing, dribbling and shooting the soccer ball at a quick speed.

"It was me with the first goal, Bailey (Hall) with the second, Bailey with the third, Lauren (Phelps) with the fourth, Mary (Witkowski) with the fifth, and me, again, with the sixth," said French, rattling off the names of the scorers on her team in perfect memory like she had just aced a test in school.

"Nailed it," said French, enthusiastically, after running down the scoring list, perfectly, with other teammates nearby laughing at the remark.

And this Lancers team is nailing down the wins now, moving toward the serious path of the 3A state playoffs, a familiar ground for the Lancers. Besides, not making it to the playoffs for the first time in a long time, maybe forever, under Stamnes three decade long years of coaching girls, not to metion boys, included, in that excellent slate of success.

Fact is, though, in this game the Lancers did get some competition from the Pirates, despite the final score, as alluded to earlier.

Starting the game, the Pirates got the first shot, albeit way wide of the Lancers' goal, when junior forward Karen Orellana teamed with senior Flor Aquino in the opening seconds of play.

But play was controlled in the midfield by the Lancers, mostly, the next seven minutes before that first goal of the game came as French took a pass, from teammate and fellow freshman Sophia Ricci, at the penalty kick area, 12 yards straight way from the goal. French controlled the ball and placed a nice touch on it into the net to make it 1-0 Lancers.
The next goal came two minutes later for the Lancers when Hall fielded a pass from Phelps, and scored it.

Hall scored another goal a couple minutes later when she got the ball from French and knocked it home.

"It was a 1-2 with Yianna," said French, who spoke of where the ball is one-touched to and from one player to another, usually getting past a defender for a score.

So 10 minutes passed, and three goals arrived for the Lancers already.
As play continued and Hadaller entered goal for the Pirates, the final 30 minutes of the first half were a lot more even, with no goals scored by the Lancers. Highline played well, with Loy working the ball in the middle well to the likes of Orellana up front and Aquino, too.
"We finished the first half well," said Pirates' coach Jeb Binns. "We came from behind in the first 15 minutes to play a lot better game the rest of the half."

Included in that better play for the Pirates in half one was their getting off a good cross from Aquino into the middle in the first half's final 10 minutes that was one of the saves that Seifert made, coming out of goal well to beat Pirates forwards and midfielders, like Loy and Orellana, to the ball, bouncing into the 18-yard-box area. And, this much we know of Seifort's game stats in goal.

"I don't think you had any saves in the game," said one of her teammates after the game.

"Yeah, a few, but not many," said Seifert.
And, diving saves?

"One," said Seifert.

So the Pirates demonstrated by virtue of having made Seifert make a few saves, one diving even, that they were a worthy foe for much of the match, competition-wise, even not, score-wise.

"They are one of the better teams in the Seamount, but we played well," said Hall. "We are a lot better since the beginning of the season."
The Lancers did lose some games early on in the season, all non-league, though. And, Stamnes, simply, wanted to give his players better competition, or parity, from state playoff caliber teams like Kings, a 2A team that is undefeated now, 12-0, and, even a 4A team played, Bothell, who is not having a great season but, nonetheless, is a full classification higher than the Lancers. So that kind of work should prepare the Lancers well for what is to come at state, in another couple weeks with the postseason starting up for them.

The fourth goal for the Lancers arrived eight minutes into the second half. It was Phelps, with Witkowski assisting her.

And the fifth net-getter was senior captain Witkowski scoring, with freshman Clair Varden, assisting. And, with a few minutes left in half two, Phelps notched her second assist of the game as she passed to French, getting her second goal of the game.

"My girls played hard and kept their heads up," said Binns. "They played well."