By ALAN ZOLTIE and EMILY LEVIN

For The Beachcomber

On the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 6, the Cougars of Cascade Christian made an appearance at Vashon High School, bringing with them a strong physical team which the Pirates knew right from kickoff would be hard to break down.

The match was the first of a three-game series of away games that stretched over five days. This first game was a close contest with the aggressive Cougars making it tough for the Pirates to score. It took two attempts on goal by Pirates’ top scorer Maren Fremstad, both of which were seething shots from just outside the 18-yard box, before Cascade had its first foray into Pirate territory. VHS goalkeeper Katherine Andrus had little to do until she failed to stop a shot by the Cougars in the 25th minute, which just beat her to give Cascade a slender halftime lead 1-0.

The second half was more of the same, relentless Vashon pressure without any real gain or threat to the Cougars’ goal. Then the whole game turned after a missed shot by Vashon’s Emily Serebryakova. Although some spectators believed a Cougar defender had stuck her hand out and hit the ball, the referee played on, and with time running down, coach Karen Olsen went for broke and played the last five minutes with five strikers in the hope of pulling back the one-goal deficit.

The lineup change left the Pirates exposed at the back, and with 30 seconds of the game left on a breakaway from its own half, Cascade scored what would be the decisive, and winning, goal, making the final score 2-0.

Thursday, Oct. 8, saw a rematch at Seattle Christian. The team knew this one was going to be a battle, with Vashon desperate for a win that would enhance its playoff chances.

Vashon started brightly, and before long had some opportunities to take the lead; However, midway through the first half, Vashon native and Seattle Christian player Abbie Kim took over, sprinting down the left wing and shooting low and hard past the Pirates’ keeper, making it 1-0  Seattle.

Three minutes later, Kim again pounced onto a through ball from one of her teammates and easily put it past the Vashon keeper with the Pirates’ defense floundering. The half ended at 2-0 Seattle.

The second half saw more of the same, and in the 39th minute, Seattle found themselves with an unassailable 3-0 lead. Four minutes from time, Kim again blasted a shot from a distance  and past the Pirates’ keeper to make it 4-0 and give Seattle Christian a win it thoroughly deserved, leaving Vashon with an all-but-impossible task to make the playoffs.

An early kickoff at Starfire Stadium against Northwest School on the morning of Saturday, Oct. 10 , was met with a depleted squad and torrential rain.

Coach Karen Olsen made several changes to the team that had lost midweek, and with rain pouring from the heavens, Vashon came out guns blazing. Andrus, in goal, had nothing to do until the 28th minute when she mis-timed a 25-yard blast from a Northwest midfielder that sailed right over her head to put the Pirates one goal behind at halftime.

In the second half, with rain coming down in torrents,  a different Pirates team came on to the game and, with only 20 minutes to play, a perfectly placed shot into the bottom right hand corner of the Northwest net by Bailey Ormsby leveled the score. A quick one-two between Ana and Camille DeGuzman five minutes later left Camille with a shot on target that scored and put the Pirates one goal in front.

Before Vashon had time to enjoy this lead, Northwest powered downfield toward the Vashon goal, and only a magnificent save by Andrus, who had been redundant for most of the morning, kept the lead on the Pirates’ side. With only four minutes left, the DeGuzman sisters dribbled and passed to the incoming Serebyakova, who blasted her shot easily past the Northwest keeper, making it 3-1 Vashon and a victory well earned.

The girls will take on Tacoma’s Charles Wright Academy at a 4 p.m. home game Thursday, Oct. 15, when it will celebrate its seniors.

— Alan Zoltie is the assistant coach of the VHS girls’ soccer team. Emily Levin is a VHS freshman and soccer player.