Quincy girls soccer season ends in narrow district defeat

QUINCY — The Quincy Jacks (11-6) concluded their season Saturday in a narrow 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Grandview Greyhounds in the opening round of the Central Washington Athletic Conference district tournament. What seemed to hamper them the most was urgency, Head Coach Javier Diaz said.  

"The same thing we had these last few games," he said. "Not starting with urgency, letting ourselves be underdogs because of getting scored on a couple times, and just we fought back. But again, ran out of time. Urgency was our biggest enemy. We didn't play with urgency at the beginning, and then we did towards the end, got our goal, and then just ran out of time." 

The coaches were emphasizing this ahead of the opening whistle and encouraged the players to find a way to score in the first five minutes. However, it was the Greyhounds that scored, off a corner kick which set up a player to boot it into the top left of the net. The remainder of the first half went scoreless as the Jacks tried their best to get some momentum.  

The second half did not start the way Quincy wanted either, after a hand ball call set up a go-ahead Grandview penalty kick to put them up 2-0 in the first five minutes of the second half. From there, the Jacks battled for about 20 minutes until they were able to punch it in off miscues by the Greyhound defenders and goalkeepers. With about 15 minutes left in the game, the Jacks came alive and nearly found the net multiple times. However, time eventually ran out on Quincy and Grandview secured the win. 

Prior to the game, Diaz highlighted the importance of playing well in the middle of the field in a prior interview with the Columbia Basin Herald. Though it was shaky in the first half, the Jacks did improve throughout the game in this regard, he said.   

"We made adjustments as it progressed. We tried a couple different things, and we did a pretty decent job in the midfield," said the coach. "It's just the finalization of trying to get those shots and trying to get those goals. That was the hardest part for us. We put our own roadblocks. Nothing against Grandview; they did a great job preparing and being there. Like I told the ladies, we just got to get that first one, and that will open the gates for us, hopefully. And it did, unfortunately, we couldn't turn in one more goal there at the end." 

Despite the result, Diaz said there was plenty for his team to be proud of what they were able to do this season.  

"It was a great season. With the girls that we have, the crew, they're just great people," he said. "They're great student athletes, we're going to definitely miss the seniors (and) their leadership. Now we start looking at next year. But very proud of the work that we did. I learned a lot from them, and I'm hoping to incorporate that into our future, building and growing the program from here on out." 

Emily Romero Ramirez, Arlene Bolanos, Emiko Kondo, Diana Ramirez, Addison Compton, Aylen Garcia, Jacki Perez and Jazmine Sanchez are the eight senior the Jacks will graduate after this season. After praising the class for their impact, Diaz also points to a promising future with a lot of talent coming back next year to build off his first season has the head coach.  

"We will have a lot of players coming back, and we will have players coming up from the middle school too that I coached when I was in club, and so I'm excited for that too," said the coach. "The future of the girls' program here is going to be great. I'm hoping to have that established connection with the club and stuff like that to make sure that we're all on the same page when it comes to program expectations, and then just that way they know what to expect once they get here, and they fit right in." 

BOX SCORE: 

GRVW: 1-1: 2 

QNCY: 0-1: 1 

    Lizbeth Diaz (5) fires off a shot on goal with two Grandview defenders in her path on Saturday.
  

    Allanah Longwill (2) takes a shot on goal against Grandview on Saturday.
  

    The Jacks' Hailey Courtade (9) plays keep away against two Grandview players on Saturday.