By Ed Shepherd
Sports Correspondent

PARKLAND--The Highline girls soccer team came back from deficits twice and beat Port Angeles, 3-2, in a West Central District Class 2A playoff game at Franklin Pierce High School Thursday, Nov. 6.
"This is a team that's played hard for each other all year," said Pirates head coach Jeb Binns. "The seniors led us, and this team's played with a lot of blood, sweat and tears this season."

The Pirates play against Liberty (Issaquah) at 12 p.m. Saturday in a loser-out match for a state tournament berth. Liberty was a 4-0 winner over Franklin Pierce in its first district game Thursday,
It was tears early on for the Pirates this past Thursday against Port Angeles. And one Pirates' player really shed them, following her make of an own goal, scoring on her team. That player would be the Pirates' sweeper, Jackie Madsen, a senior captain, hit the ball backwards, accidentally, toward the Pirates' net while trying to clear the ball out about 12 yards from the goal. The ball flew up and over Pirates keeper Makenna Hadaller in the 10th minute of play, making it 1-0, Roughriders.
Startling play, really.

"That was crazy weird," said Madsen, a Pirates' senior, who would go on to make up for that tearful play and then some.

Madsen would get assists on the first two Pirates' goals of the game and, what's more, Madsen would score the game-winning goal in the end.

"After I scored the own-goal, I did five minutes of crying. I was upset and I didn't want to score the goal that made us lose. I wanted to get it back."

Madsen made up for things big-time, but first, before her huge goal to send her team into a frenzy late in the game, came the first Pirates' goal.

Another senior, Flor Aquino, took a pass from Madsen and, inside the 18-yard box area, Aquino dribbled and knocked the ball by the diving Roughriders' keeper, to knot the score, 1-1, at the 17th minute of the game's first half.

In the second half, the Roughriders scored in the 54th minute of the game, making it 2-1. And Pirates were working so hard that first 14 minutes of the second half before the foe scored. That concerned Binns, too.

"I was a little concerned when we dominated to start the second half, and then they scored a goal," said Binns.
Things looked pretty dismal as the game got into the final 10 minutes of play with still the Roughriders leading by a goal and even controlling the ball a little more than the Pirates since it's goal gave them momentum about one third of the way through the second half.

Binns was shouting things like, "Win it. Win it. Everything you have, Pirates."
And then, with five minutes left in the game, the Pirates scored. In the 75th minute, it was when sophomore center midfielder Mary Loy found the ball nicely on the run from Madsen around the 25-yard area. Dribbling forward into the 18-yard box is where a defender lurked. Loy, spinning, did a savvy cut right with the ball, pushing it past the Roughriders' defender, who was the sweeper -- the last player back on defense for the foe. And, with only the goalie to get the ball past, Loy blasted the sphere, right side, far-post, into the net to tie things up, 2-2.

"Instead of us getting down on ourselves after they scored, they fought through it," said Binns' of his Pirates' young ladies.

And, not done yet, still fighting, the Pirates, with the clock turned off, and, going by the referee's official time only, the final two minutes of play, inside that window of opportunity the Pirates' peaked at the most critical time of this game, even more.

With 1:00 left in the game, Madsen took the ball on the left side of the field and dribbled into the 18-yard box and was not sure what to do at that point because shooting from the left side on goal means using a left foot unless someone can do some funky side-of-the-toe boot, which is not accurate, in the least bit, by the way. So, Madsen just set the ball in front of her despite not being accustomed to shooting the ball from the left side. And, it went skipping hard, line-drive style toward the Roughriders' keeper and with a little zippy help from the rain-soaked turf went off the keeper's arms, just a bit, and into the goal, 3-2, Pirates.

"I didn't know how much time we had left and, even though I am not left-footed, I kicked it with my left foot," said Madsen. "It was my surgery leg (ACL), too."

So, the referee's whistle blew shortly thereafter, and the excited Pirates shook the Roughriders' hands, plus the referees hands, in good acts of sportsmanship before listening to their coach, Binns, gather them after the game.

"I am so proud of you girls," said Binns afterward, with the girls screaming and happy. "You never gave up."
Binns spoke after the game aside from them, too, saying why this team made such an incredible comeback, two goals in the final five minutes of play.

"They believed in themselves and got it done," said Binns. "We recovered from an own goal, rallied back from that, and didn't collapse."

And, Madsen added, "Even if I had the scored the own goal, and we lost, it didn't really matter in the end, because my team played so well."