Tough Loss.

But a good loss, as this regular season game against the first place team should keep this Todd Beamer Titans girls soccer team thinking it's well on its way to getting to its best by postseason end while Emerald Ridge, who beat them 2-0, Friday at Federal Way Memorial, has to be thinking the Titans would be a tough play a third time this season.

"We are not there yet, we are still peaking," said Beamer Joel Lindberg, head coach, looking frustrated but still smiling after the loss.

It was back-and-forth, but, by most people’s measurements, the second place Titans outplayed the Jaguars, who kept to first in the South Puget Sound League South with an undefeated record. Barring an upset from the lower place teams, like Decatur in third place, one spot back of Beamer in second, and, another tie/loss by the Jaguars, the ending is no longer in question of league champs.

But what about the state champ question?

That is likely where the Titans will see the Jaguars next, if both get deep into the postseason and were slated to play each other another time.

Here’s what Lindberg said directly to the girls after the game.

"I did see another level out there by you out there," he said. "You made a good step. Don't be disappointed. We just need to keep stepping forward."

The Titans scored first on a goal by Tiarra Fentress 14 minutes in. The Jaguars scored next, with their leading goal-scorer, Audrey Sullivan, finding the mark at 31 minutes.

The final score came in the 72nd minute of play when Crook, dribbling first, passed a ball from midfield 10 yards downfield to a teammate.

It could have been a nice 1-2 wall pass by a defender in the middle, but no one made a run after that pass...
Intercepted!

The Jaguar player trapped it, booted it 30 yards crossfield to Sullivan, beating the left fullback with a super 180 degree heel flick behind her and toward Meghan Graf and the Titans’ goal. All alone. 15 yards, 10 yards. Boom. Game-winner.

"She's a fantastic player, her and No. 30 (Kayla Stueckle," said Lindberg.

They are fantastic, but the Titans played great defense on them most of the game. A very brief lapse was learned would be the difference in who won, but it was a great ball, a great trap by Sullivan and the move was pretty unstoppable for any defender.

The biggest difference in this game and a good reason why the Gators game played the Saturday prior to this one was closer than it probably should have been was that senior captain, all-league, 2007 state player of the year in the Seattle Times and Tacoma News Tribune got untracked.

After not touching the ball even once the final 15-20 minutes of what was a tie game, 1-1, to their rival Gators, the Jags’ game for Crook was so much different. 

Lindberg got her a lot more involved in the offense and it paid off with not a win but hopefully, for this Titans team, some morale that even though they lost they still controlled play, speaking of the second half, dominatingly. The split in time of possession was probably around a 65/35 percent, favoring the Titans.

"We tried to push Holland up a little more," said Lindberg.

Holland's effort controlling the middle was seen easy. She made several nice passes and through balls for teammates like Tiara Fentress getting off a couple hard shots only not going in because of good saves by the Jags’ keeper.

Crook can only concentrate on so much, being center midfield, so others needed to step up and get the offense on goal. They did, led by Fentress, a sophomore and Sarah Petosa, although not tallying any scores.

Crook moved the offense through her but she still was without many shots on goal, something that can still be worked on as the team moves toward the postseason. That's a positive, as the Jags looked like their weapons -- Kayla Stueckle, Kimmie Stueckle and Audrey Sullivan -- were at full tilt and getting involved in game as much as could be had in a given 90 minutes of action.

But not Crook. She was not shooting the ball hardly at all in this one, maybe one shot the second half amounting to much and it was a “field goal” over the crossbar dead center and through the uprights beyond the goal net.

Jessica Niewoehner, defensively, was solid back at sweeper, playing off the ER speed demons, like Stueckles, who took second at state last spring in the 100-meter hurdles and won the 300 hurdles.

She's hard to defend, but the Titans did a great job, second half speaking. Her only shots were a solid 20 yards out from the goal on the right side which were not high-percentage makes even though she did cannon them close on goal. 

So Niewoehner and company did not let anything get by them  and the defense was great about stopping Stueckles from doing much, names like Avery Salsbury and Jessica Sanchez.

It is just hard to stop two tough offensive weapons. Both are 1-2 on the team in goals scored and assists, too. Stueckles and Sullivan are dangerous threats any time they touch the ball. But two is better than one and that kind of defense from the Titans was effective against them.

"The defense did a great job back there, they just have so many offensive weapons," said Lindberg.

One other “weapon” not yet mentioned is Kimmie Stueckles for the Jaguars. She too is not far behind her sister, Kayla, and Sullivan in goals. So that's tough to overcome, plus the Jaguars’ defense is stingy, too.

But the Titans matched the high-powered Jaguars stride for stride and, for the most part, passed the ball around their foe. Maybe the last 10 minutes or so, when the Jaguars scored, they let down a little bit, diverting from the game plan just enough to give the Jaguars the ball and consequently the winning goal.

"The game plan was ball possession," said Brett Lucas, Beamer assistant coach. "The ball was played more in the air than we would have liked."

Everything seems to be on cue for the Titans, despite this loss that said really more than anything else that Beamer is improving and the Jags are not.

The Jags might not agree with that but the better passing was done by the Titans and no one should be able to argue that.

"I thought we worked hard," said Lindberg. "I think we played them a lot tougher than last time. I think we are starting to put it together. We are not at our peak yet."

"Next time, if we play them, it will be serious," said Lucas.