Seamount’s No. 1 seed, Kennedy, took on the South Puget Sound League 3A No.1 seed Sumner in the battle of who would get the No. 1 seed into the girls state tournament, and the Lancers planted the Spartans, 4-0, in West Central Districts playoff action on the Highline Memorial Field turf Tuesday.

“We started off slow and finished strong,” said Lancers head coach Doug Stamnes, getting the Lancers to the postseason virtually every year he’s coached in his 25 or so years nourishing good seasons there.

The Lancers finished the Seamount 15-0-1 and 17-0-1 overall while Sumner won the SPSL 3A with a 7-0-1 mark and 13-3-1 overall.

In the first round of the state playoffs, the Lancers played lower seed, Peninsula, Saturday (after press time). Beating Peninsula would advance these local young ladies to yesterday’s (Tuesday’s) state opener. Winning a quarterfinal this weekend would mean a date in the semifinals at Lakewood Stadium Nov. 21. And, winning that would mean doing what the Lancer boys team did last spring -- playing in the championship -- the next day.

Started off a little slow against Sumner? Did the Lancers?

Quite true as being a little slow, goal-wise, was for sure. Afterall, these Lancers tallied over 100 goals this season and only allowed four goals against. Twenty minutes into this game versus Sumner it was a scoreless tie. And then, when the Lancers did score it was a semi-lucky kind of goal at the 23-minute mark. The Spartans’ keeper came off the goal line on a corner kick out of goal in the near-post area. She jumped high for the routinely crossed Amy Holland corner kick ball...and the ball went through the keeper’s hands. Yikes! The ball was bouncing around then on the goalline area as a swarm of purple, red, white and black came.

The Lancers’ Shey Thommassen, with determination kicking at the ball into Sumner players kicking at the ball, won out. Thommassen put it in for a 1-0 lead.

Still, halftime came, and up, 1-0, when they controlled the ball 80 percent of the time, should have been more scores. Stamnes talked to the girls a bit at halftime on the subject.

“He told us we needed to play our game of soccer and pass it around,” said Kurle.

The next Lancers’ goal was easy enough, also coming off a keeper miscue. On a Lancers free kick from 40 yards out, Marissa Monson sailed the ball to the upper vee, far-post area. The ball was booted truly where it should go, but still it looked like the Spartans’ keeper could have batted it away. But she tried to grab it instead. And it went through her hands down into the net. Monson put her hands to her mouth in an “Oh, my gosh, I didn’t think I would make that” standing pose. Teammates began to congratulate her, and it was now 2-0 and this was 59 minutes into the match.

Then the next goal came from Rebekah Kurle, who knocked in 30 goals and 10 assists this Seamount season. She missed quite a few chances against the Mount Rainier Rams in a league-ending match a week earlier. The chances were not perfect chances to score for Kurle against their rival. But close enough. She could have put away at least one of those chances, being the player she is. She did not score though in a 2-1 Lancers win.

And, here in this game, Kurle was unfortunately starting where she left that Rams game off, going scoreless. She missed a couple first-half tries against Sumner, from inside the 18-yard box, putting one ball in the 10th minute of play wide of the near post. Then in the second half Kurle missed another close-in shot, poking it wide of the goal.

“I need to get my head in the game, concentrating,” said Kurle, only a sophomore and this knock on her is really not a knock at all with 30 goals and 10 assists in a season. That’s fabulous. But some of the Seamount competition’s weakness definitely balloons those score/assist numbers. In the big games, like against state and district competition, is when scoring really counts.

“When I settled down, it was easier for me to play,” said Kurle.

So, Kurle did score in this bigger type seeding game settling the top seed coming from this district.

Kurle did score the next goal. It came from a beautiful sequence of long and short passes leading up to it.

“It was a nice pass from Katie Dunphy to Kirsten Olson, who made a beautiful cross to Kurle,” said John Ruffo, longtime Lancers statistician.

It was all of that, and, more, as this goal would be the first real earned goal of the game for the Lancers.

The whole play started with a long ball kicked from the right side of the field from senior fullback Lia Swartout, sailing in a ball 30 yards down field and cross field. She placed it beautifully to Dunphy, trapping it, and passing it to Olson a few yards forward, standing at the left corner of the 18-yard box. Then Olson curled a cross to Kurle, and Kurle nailed it on the run, full-volley, smacking the ball from mid-air into the net as the keeper came out desperately unsuccessfully to make it 3-0.

The final Lancers score came a pretty, smooth, twisted way. Monson passed the pall forward across the midfield line to Olson 10 yards further, who spun a 360-degree move with the ball that left two defenders in the dust who were trying to close in. She then dribbled 10-20 yards before a 1-on-1 with the keeper pocketing the sphere far-post, to make it 4-0.

Quite a change first half to second too, possession-wise, as the Spartans did put up a good fight the first half, going after the winnable 50/50 balls, and getting some. It was six shots to two on goal in the first half, favoring Kennedy. But the second half was quite different. Eight shots on goal for Kennedy and zero for the Spartans. The Lancers outshot the Spartans, 14-2, for the game. The Sumner keeper had to make eight saves for the game while the Lancers’ keeper, Chelsea Lockhart, was tested once. She came out of goal frantically, thanks to a Lancers defensive miscue that left the Sumner striker able to touch a trapped ball and it bounced a time or two before hitting the post and bouncing out.

That was it, though. The Spartans just seemed to lose their will to continue to go as hard as they could as this game went along. Or maybe having their will broken is a better way to put it.

“I think we wore them down a little bit,” said Stamnes.

The Sumner coach felt the same kind of way after this one.

“I felt like we haven’t been tested like Kennedy tested us,” said Sumner coach Robi Turley. “We never felt that much pressure.”

And, due too from a strongly coached soccer team coach, Stamnes, whom the girls regularly praise if given the chance. A father figure. And one thing’s for sure, there is talent out there but what takes this team over the top is its willingness to play a speed game of passing coined with hustle going after every loose ball.

It all adds up to one thing: breathtaking soccer to watch. Hopefully it adds up to more than that, too, like another Kennedy girls state championship. Their last was five years ago.