Constant pressure controlled the climate in a Decatur 1-0 South Puget Sound League South Division girls soccer shutout against visiting Rogers on Thursday at Federal Way Memorial Field.
This win improved the Gator second place record to 9-1-3 while its 30 points maintained a 1-point margin over third place Todd Beamer and qualified the Gators for the playoffs with remaining regular season matches against unbeaten Emerald Ridge, Spanaway Lake and Beamer.
"Our team has shown guts and a lot of heart," stated Decatur head coach Christy Gross. "We've lost four starters for the season, but the girls have worked hard to adjust to the new positions."
On Tuesday, the Rams (4-9) played the Gators evenly for 20 minutes of up and down the field action.
By the 21st minute, Decatur was regularly inhabiting the Rogers neighborhood. The Rogers defense held off the Lady Gator's gobbling-up-the-field offense that was masterfully passing the ball until a 0-0 halftime ensued.
"We tried a new formation for the first 20 minutes," admitted Gross. "It affected our movement, so we went back to our normal formation. The struggle for tonight was to avoid the extra 1-touch and shoot the ball more. We moved better and talked in the second half."
Decatur rushed into the second half fray with a passion for aggression.
Within the first 10 minutes, Rylie Buckholz and Ellie Franco combined for three threatening shots that demonstrated how well the midfielders and defenders had pushed up the field. This domination continued for the near entirety of the second half.
Continually buffeting the Rogers goal area, the Lady Gators finally broke through in minute 64.
Junior Estrella Lewis slid home the kick that eventually decided the contest.
"The ball was there," she recalled. "A Rogers player was there, too, so I slid right and kicked it past the defender and the keeper. We just had to emphasize more shooting."
Freshman Victoria Braun was credited with an assist on the goal.
Decatur kept Rogers in a defensive posture the rest of the match although failing to score again.
"We really had good ball control and went to more ground passing in the second hlaf," explained junior midfielder France.
Kayla Lipston collected three saves in the shutout while the Gators peppered the Ram goal with 16 shots and got off six corner kicks.
Speedy Ashley Graves dribbled well to help set up frontline and sideline rushes.
