By Ed Shepherd
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

BELLEVUE--It wasn't sweet, and it was short.

The young and willing Kennedy Catholic girls soccer team found itself against a ready, experienced, talented, Bellevue squad, as the Lancers' traits failed to quite match the Wolverines'. Consequently their season came to a close in a 3-0 loss in the first round of the WIAA 3A state tournament at Bellevue High School Tuesday.

"They are a very talented team," said Lancers coach, Doug Stamnes. "They've been together for awhile."

Kennedy's season came to a close with an 11-8 mark while the Kingco 3A champion Wolverines, who took third place at state last year and sport a 17-0 record now, move on to a second round quarterfinal Saturday.
The Wolverines carried eight seniors into the game, and it's tough to play against that reality when underclassmen littered the Lancers' roster, with the kicker being that the Wolverines' state experience is huge with their team having made it to the semifinal of the 3A tourney last season.

"We started nine freshmen and a sophomore," said Stamnes.
That pretty much explains it all, as, far as the experience factor is concerned. And in high school team sports that's the single, biggest factor in seperating the winners and losers, arguably.

But, going to the game, these Lancers' young ladies came in playing well, with the Wolverines controlling the ball more, to start out, on the Lancers' end of the field.

But, in the 10th minute, maybe some of those youthful jitters surfaced as a player looked to dive in, going for a ball on a pass into the 18-yard-box area, on the left side, and the ensuing player, senior, Rachel Waddell, shot it far-post, past diving, Lancers' freshman keeper Jackie Seafort, to take a 1-0 lead.

"It was like nerve-wracking at first," said Kalena Cordero, a freshman who started and played outside fullback this big game for the Lancers. "But we all got composed after the start."

And that was a problem, the trying to wrestle with nervousness at the game's start, as just six minutes later, in the 16th minute, still reeling, shaken, from the first Wolverines' strike, the Lancers, watched, as, on the right side, the Wolverines' scored on JoJo Harber's first of two goals -- a hard shot that nestled past Seafort, going for it, all out, into the right corner of the goal to make it 2-0.

But Harber was a sophomore, not a senior, she was just experienced in soccer, having played on the U-17 national team this past season, in addition, to her high school time. So it's hard to cope with that kind of player. But cope the Lancers did, with Harber, as, Cordero, a freshman fullback Clair Varden, and others back on defense like junior sweeper Kit Bruner, did a good job containing her, Waddell and other forward players like, Joelle Tudor.

No more goals were scored in the half.

But, the damage was done, and Tudor explained why that damage may have been done so early, the quick goals scored by the Wolverines on the Lancers.

But they just seemed more ready, and maybe confident, to start the game?

"That was our mindset, to come in and score," said Tudor.

But Tudor gave praise to the Lancers, too, of this game, as, besides, the two quick scores in the first 20 minutes of play, if one just walked into the game outside of that fact, one could think all through the game that the Lancers and Wolverines played even soccer, equally controlling the ball.

"It was competitive until the end," said Tudor.

Just as good as any of the other teams in the Kingco, that includes Lake Washington, a team the Wolverines beat twice but was one goal-against more, six, than the Wolverines, and one goal back on goals-for, too, with 36.

"Just as good," said Tudor.

So, that's a comment that the Lancers' players can hang their cleats on this off-season, as, hey, hats off to Bellevue, who just flat-out was tough-minded, and, skillyfully, well-rounded. There's not many weak links on that team. So the Wolverines did take a lot of shots in this game, but most were harmless far off shots of the seven in the first half and seven in the second -- 14 total shots. Those came to the Lancers' one shot on-goal all game. That didn't even come until the 65th minute of the game, 15 minutes into the second half.

But the Lancers received high remarks from a forward on the Wolverines' who watched her team play all season against many strong teams, including Lake Washington, which also made the 3A state tourney.

So in the second half the Lancers came out strong, again, and, showing improvement, didn't allow the Wolverines to score until the 58th minute. It was Harber, doing the direct hit, dribbling into the 18-yard box off a teammate's pass, 10 yards, top of the circle. Then Harber, turning with the ball, pushed into the penalty box area straightaway and put it past Seafort, running out of goal to try and cut off the angle to make it 3-0.

Some might want to put the blame on the goalie, but, don't. Seafort played well, as, most of the Wolverines' shots, as, aforesaid, were of the non-threatening variety. However, "most" does not equate to "all."
And two Wolverines' shots were deadly in force, up-top sailing, that Seafort saved, with hands overhead, sure-handed clutches of the ball. And Seifort's good intuition had her coming out of goal to thwart run-ins from Wolverines' forwards, like, Harber, Waddell, Tudor, others, who were sprinting at the ball, rolling into the 18-yard box.
"Jackie did a great job. None of those were her fault," said Stamnes of his freshman keeper.

"We knew it was going to be a tough game, so we wanted to go at it the best we could," said Seifert.

"And the Lancers went well, as Cordero punctuated that reality.
"Even though they scored on us, we never gave up. We kept playing to the best of our abilities," said Cordero.

And, it's true to note as well that one of the experienced Lancers players, senior, Mary Witkowski, was injured, and, some others, too, not to mention, sophomore, Jordyn Matthews -- who went up for a header and was headed by another player. The referee did not call a foul on the play, said it was the ball that hit Matthews' head. But Matthews leaving the game and getting an ice bag on her head proved that more than the ball hit her.

"I felt her hit me, it wasn't the ball," said Matthews.

"We were getting knocked off the ball a lot, legally, but, getting knocked off the ball," said Stamnes, of the aggressive nature, ala shoulder tackling and arm technique rubbing that was, yet, another sign of an experienced team who knew what to do to intimidate and shoulder opportunities into its corner.

So, it was a rough, tough, physical game that the Lancers tried to match up with but state experience helped the Wolverines, a lot, as the Lancers, for most of these players, freshman, and the one sophomore, didn't even make it to state last year, so, improvement there, too. "We had some bright spots," said Stamnes. "The girls played well, freshmen against seniors. The other team was well coached."