It’s the little things sometimes that turn out to be big differences, for instance, like Kennedy coach Doug Stamnes getting his girls to just have fun in half two, after a deadlocked 0-0 tie through the first half with Camas, before beating them, 3-0, in a first round socccer state tournament quarterfinal at Highline Stadium Wednesday.

Kennedy had its hands full but the No. 1 ranked team in the state, now 19-0-1, surpassed a stingy Papermakers, southwest area team that ends its season at 13-3-2.

“We had more opportunities in the first half, but we were rushing things,” said Stamnes, just picked as the 2008 Seamount League Coach of the Year. “Once we settled down, we controlled the game and great things started.”

That’s exactly how things went. The Lancers took three shots on goal in the first half to none for Camas, and the Papermakers’ keeper had to make five saves in the first half. The Lancers’ keeper, Chelsea Lockhart, was a little busy, too, making three saves and doing a good job against a couple early threats from the Camas school that is across the river from Portland, Ore.

The boys Lancers soccer team lost to Camas, 4-0, just last spring in the 3A state championship, so this win, along with the Kennedy football team’s win the Saturday prior, made for a nice measure of success, and avengement.

The Kennedy defense turned back every challenge. A couple times the play for Camas seemed sided on right fullback Lia Swarthout’s area, and she calmly trapped every ball her way and passed it upfield to teammates and out of trouble. Britany Carlson, the Lancers’ sweeper, was busy all game in the back, passing the ball forward to midfielders some of the time but mostly she chose to boot the ball forward in 30-40 yard blasts to just get Camas out of there. Make no mistake, Camas was a good team. Throughout the game, the Lancers just loosened up and took advantage of their opportunities in the second half.

The Lancers did loosen up in the second half early on and scored as Katy Dunphy watched a great crossed ball from 30 yards out on the right side from Kirsten Olson bounce once into the six yard box over a defender’s head to where Dunphy was standing far-post. She headed it in to make it 1-0 with only five minutes off the second half 40 minutes of time.

“It was a great cross from Kirsten,” said Dunphy. “I got on the end of it, got what I could on it.”

Which was her head. Great goal.

The next goal came a long time later, with 10 minutes left in the game when Rebekah Kurle passed to Dunphy and she lobbed the ball with a fine touch over the defender and goalie at the six yard box to make it 2-0.

“I was just trying to put it back in the box and it went in,” said Dunphy.

She’s probably scored a ton of goals this season. Right?

“That was only my second and third goals this season,” said Dunphy. “I have been out with injury this season a lot.”

Right place, right time, twice for Dunphy, and these scores couldn’t have come at a better time against a better team. Camas was a lower seeded team from the Greater St Helens 3A league, but they were every bit of a caliber of top-notch seed. The Lancers just wore them down with their hard play and determination to win as well as taking their coach’s advice to take a chill pill, so to speak, to calm themselves down into playing their game from the second half on.

“They put up a pretty good score against Mount Rainier, 5-1,” said Dunphy of Camas in a district lose-out game prior to this first round state game that ended the Rams’ season. “We didn’t know what to expect.”

So they were a little shaken in thought it seems from that good job of making believers out of MR that Camas was a for-real lower seed from the Southwest.

But the Lancers figured it all out.

“We settled down and had faith in each other,” said Dunphy. “Our coach told us at halftime to keep up the communication and try not to play so nervous because we were really nervous.”

Roland Minder, the coach of Camas who also coached the boys team to the state title last year, was asked what made the biggest difference in them beating you.

“We didn’t get many good shots off,” said Minder.

And why was that?

“They have an incredible defense,” he said. “Kennedy is a great team. I wish them all the best.”

The Lancers’ last score of the night came with five minutes left, thanks to a great ball played into the middle from Julia Besagno, bulleting a pass to Kurle, who turned on it with her foot, volleying it from mid-air line-drive near-post and in to make it 3-0.

Next up for Kennedy is the Mount Si or Bonney Lake winner on Nov. 15 at Highline Stadium in the round of eight state game. The winner of that goes on to the Nov. 21 semifinal. Win that and the final is the next night, Saturday, Nov. 22.