The score really did not reflect the intensity of 80 minutes of play, with the first 35 minutes of the first half scoreless. Then the Totems improved things a little more after that, striking for three second-half goals en route to a 4-0 win at Highline Stadium Thursday.

Tyee picked up its second win of the season while Evergreen continues to try hard and not have one yet.

The game plan was simple, talking to Tyee coach John Yellam. “Go out there, play hard.”

He also told his girls to be aggressive and to “fight to the end.”

They did. Both did, as the Wolverines fought hard, too, especially the first half. Their few shots on goal were saved by Totems keeper Ashley Lambe.

“She worked hard out there,” said Yellam. “She didn’t have a lot of opportunities for saves, but she made the most of the one’s she had.”

She did, and her Totems offense that helped earn her the shutout was scratching and clawing to score the first half on the other end of the field the first 30 minutes. They finally found the net five minutes from halftime on a free kick taken from the top of the 18-yard-box by senior Lisa Campos.

The Totems scored their second goal 10 minutes into the second half on an Aycha Amar kick in, close range, by the junior playing forward.

Then the third goal came with 10 minutes left in the game as Karen Moran, a senior, scored, dribbling the ball in and taking it inside of a defender and in. The last Totems’ score of the night came with six minutes left, when Dani Woods nailed it. From the top of the 18-yard-box, Woods chose shooting to the left post and the Evergreen keeper got a hand on it but the ball still went off her and in.

“That’s what I am talking about, Tyee,” said Woods, after the game, coming back to the sideline. Fans in the stands couldn’t help but hear the senior’s enthusiasm exude and echo across the stadium.

The score was all Tyee in the end, but Yellam said that both teams fought hard out there and either one could have earned the “W.”

“It was a fun game, regardless of the 4-0 score,” said Yellam. “Both teams could have walked away with the win.”

Yellam spoke to his girls before the game started, telling them they had a choice.

“I told them it was their game to win or their game to lose,” he said. “They decided to fight hard and pull out the victory.”
Yellam said his team earned it.

“The biggest thing is they earned every goal and they earned this win tonight,” said Yellam.

That says to give some props to Evergreen.

A lot of the players on this team speak a different language, Spanish, French, Vietnamese, etc. So communication is something that is hard to do in games, but this team has fought through this barrier and has a team. In fact, for Tyee, there was no soccer program last year.

And, Evergreen is in a similar situation.

“We played hard but we lost,” said Carla Marim, a senior, speaking in broken English.

Yesenia Arellano, another soccer player for the Wolverines, said, “We lost but we played good.”

Was your coach happy afterward?

“She was happy because we played good,” said Arellano, again trying to put English words together. She was living in Mexico two years ago and since moved to the U.S.

Arellano was grinning and smiling, long black hair tied back in a pony tail. She is about 5-4, and, then looked at her friends watching her in an interview.

“They (Marim, Leydi Serbulo, Linda Chicos) are laughing at me for my language,” said Arellano.

This Evergreen team played hard and is not on the same level of the teams with club players all having played together many seasons, since wee days growing up in many cases. But they work as hard as the Kennedy’s and Highline’s of the world. They just don’t have the talent to win. But the talent to improve?

Yes. they have that.

“I think we improved this game,” said Marim.

And that is really what sports is all about. Whatever level you are at, CEO or Wal-Mart receipt checker, always try to improve.