Victory brings Wahluke back into the race

MATTAWA — The Wahluke High School girls started the soccer week thinking they were, or might be out of the race for the playoffs, but they upset Kiona-Benton, 3-2, on Thursday and got back into the race.

The Warriors could be in third place at the end of the South Central A Conference East campaign tonight. They’ll know after they find out how Granger did.

Wahluke is not expected to win at home against league-leading Connell. Royal, which started the day tied with Wahluke, is not expected to win at Warden. But Granger, which is one game out of third, is given a chance of downing Ki-Be at Granger.

Wahluke could have been in third all alone but fell, 4-3, to Warden on Tuesday before taking out Granger, 2-1 on Thursday.

Warden, which is very good, didn’t defeat the Warriors until there were only 10 minutes left. The Cougars scored the game-winner, then held the Wahluke offense at bay to the end.

“It was a real good game for us,” coach Arthur DeVictoria. “Sometimes you can lose a game and have it still be a good game. This was one of those.”

Warden scored first. Wahluke rallied on a goal by Liliana Celaya. Warden scored to lead at the half, then Celeste Lopez scored after intermission to tie.

Warden made it 3-2 midway through the second half, then Celaya scored again.

“It was a tough game to lose, but it was good because we played so well,” DeVictoria said.

The outcome was enough to give the Warriors hope against Ki-Be. They battled a full game and kept the score at a tie until they forced a shootout.

The shootout was just as competitive. It came down to sudden death.

Celaya, Blanca Gutierrez and Elizabeth Bravo converted penalty kicks to match three by Ki-Be after the regulation five shooters.

The sixth shooter came up for Ki-Be with Gutierrez in the goal for the Warriors. She tried to kick it toward one of the posts, but Gutierrez read her intentions correctly and stopped the shot.

That made it time for Lopez to shoot. She developed a mental block apparently, considering her chatter, before stepping to the spot.

Two or three times, she asked: “What do I do?

“Put it in the net,” DeVictoria answered.

Finally she kicked the ball past the goalie for the win.