Federal Way, embroiled in a heated battle with Auburn-Riverside in a girls soccer match Thursday, Oct. 8, the Eagles and Ravens ended the match in a 2-2 tie, at Federal Way Memorial's soccer pitch.

The Eagles record changed to 3-5-2 while the Ravens went to 4-2-4.

These two teams seemed to share no love for each other, however. Anything but.

The Ravens were guilty of taking out several FW players in this game while none of their own players walked off the field with even a limp it looked.

No Eagles players got cards and the Ravens earned two.

And some of the fans thought they should have earned at least one more of those cards.

"I wouldn't call it dirty play," said Adam Lasage, the coach of the Eagles, adding, "They were just playing really hard. They wanted this game bad, too. They are sitting in fourth place in the league."

There are only four teams that go on from this season to the playoffs from the South Puget Sound League North Division and currently the Eagles are in sixth place.

So, they have some ground to make up.

How much ground?

"We have to win our final five games," said Ladage.

No ties?

"No, we've had as many of them as we can have," he said.

Well, that said, the task of making the playoffs sounds daunting for these young ladies of the Eagles.

But not impossible?

"We can do it," said Ladage. "We have to keep our heads up and know that we are a good team. And we got to finish. We are in every game, that is not a problem."

The Eagles were in this one well.

One parent, or fan, for the Eagles, came up afterward to Lasage, putting the bag of soccer balls into his vehicle, and said, "You dominated the first half."

"We dominated both halves," said Ladage. "We got to be better in the box."

First scoring was the Ravens on a corner kick and header from inside the six-yard box.

Then the Eagles scored a minute later on a Haley Ward penalty kick to tie it at 1-1.

Next was another goal, a quick one by the Eagles via a Bianca Arizpe shot and a follow-in by Kendal Feider for the score to make it 2-1, Eagles.

The Ravens unfortunately only waited seven minutes to score. It was on another header after a cross and tied it 2-2.

The Ravens scored twice the same way, take that way of scoring away from the foe and this game's a 2-0 win.

Were you not winning the ball in the box when the Ravens girls made their runs as the cornerkick was kicked.

"We were not marking them," said Ladage, asked what could be done of that way of scoring twice by the foe and how to change that from happening in the future.

"It is an attitude, a mentality," said Ladage.

This game was tightly contested on both ends as the Ravens did send in some crosses in the second half but the backline defense led by Lydia Berger, tussling with Ravens forwards shoulder to shoulder, kicked the ball out every time.

Berger really was hammered on in this game.

"They are the nastiest team in the league,' said Berger, sitting on the bench with ice on her leg, looking like she was on the verge of crying she was so upset.

She was slide tackled in the last 10 minutes of the game, from behind, and, thus, Berger was taken out by a Ravens viscious tackle.

Definitely, it was not a clean play for the ball.

It followed Berger dribbling from her back 18 to the 50-yard line, moving well, giving the Eagles an extra threat going into their foe's half of the field.

Then the tackle came. The referee should have handed out his third yellow card to the Ravens player smashing Berger down. But that did not happen.

Maybe it didn't happen because only a couple minutes later another Eagle, Andrea Ferguson, made a nice cut move to stop the ball and the defender would have kept going on and be lost on the play if not for clipping Ferguson's ankle.

Ferguson went down in a heap after that act, having to be subbed out. She did not return to play, like Berger.

Also, in the game earlier, the Eagles' Jessica Evenson was injured on a play and was with ice on her ankle on the bench after that.

"Soccer is brutal," said Berger. "It's like football, but without the padding."

Just a rough and tumble game that looked like the Ravens were the rougher of the two, not the better, to note.

One last rough play instigated by the Ravens was where the FW keeper came out of goal with her knee in the air to get a ball clearly in her possession way before an opposing player could get there.

But the Ravens player dodged her knee and pushed the keeper backward.

Last time, earlier in the season, the Eagles tied the Ravens, too, a 0-0 score then.

"We are pretty evenly matched teams," said Berger.

The Eagles were running all over the field in this game and were close to scoring the game-winner in the end as Laneisha Robinson maybe characterizes the hard play of the Eagles in this game.

She was knocked off the ball by the Ravens' keeper in the 79th minute of play on a 50/50 ball that the person with hands -- the keeper -- could win.

It was just a rough and tumble girls game that, even only being a mid-season match-up, had a lot riding on it.

It meant the Ravens keep a secure hold of the playoff picture while the Eagles must play harder now than ever before.

As Ladage said, ties are not a real option at this point in the season, thanks to the close game losses the Eagles have experienced to SPSL teams in their league so far this season.

"We have played our best soccer of the season our last three games and we have two losses and a tie to show for it," said Ladage.

That pretty much explains everything, as it's just been a kick here or a concentration lapse there spelling the Eagles from getting a win or two more and maybe be closer to the playoff picture.

Or, better yet, against the second best team in the league, Kentwood (6-0-3), the Eagles lost to them, 2-0, the very first game of the season.

And for the Eagles being a fairly young team figuring out each other, that was a tough opening game as the Conks are a more experienced team with more juniors and seniors than any other class. The Eagles? More sophomores than any other class.

The Eagles kept that first meeting of the season a 1-0 game all the way to the final six minutes when the Conks scored in the 74th minute to win, 2-0.

So, to play that well early against the best in the league says something. It says that is a demoralizing start to a season.

The Eagles lost, 3-0, to Kentwood their next meeting. but all the Conks goals were scored in a four-minute span, the 65th, 66th, and 69th minutes of play.

The Eagles played Tahoma, the best team in the league, tough, too, losing to them, 2-1, in the game before this latest loss to Kentwood. So, that explains it.

Maybe the only way the Eagles can really explain this season as different is to do what Berger says this team can do still.

"We have played well against the better teams," said Berger. "We are holding our own, waiting to make things our own. We are out for blood, we are going for a playoff spot."

Keep up their aggressive style of soccer from here on out and, who knows, maybe they can be on the good end of the stick against Tahoma the second time around and against all the rest of the teams they must still play and win over.

This team, according to Ladage, can outhustle any team out there.

"I never question their hearts, or work rates," said Ladage. "I don't know a lot of teams that want to play us because of that."

The coaching of Ladage, a first year coach for the Eagles, is better than good, according to Berger.

"Our coach is fantastic," said Berger. "He believes in the team, believes in hard work. Compared to last year, he really does inspire us. The old girls know we have someone to inspire us the whole time."