ELMA — Eight was more than enough for the Elma soccer team on Tuesday. The Eagles exploded for six goals in the first half and came away with an 8-4 victory over La Center in a District IV 1A girls soccer tournament loser-out match at Davis Field.
Elma’s Brooke Sutherby led the Eagles with a hat trick as one of five different Eagles to score on the night.
With the win, Elma (12-4) advances to face King’s Way Christian at King’s Way in Vancouver on Thursday in a winner-to-state district semifinal match.
“We were on tonight,” Elma coach Scott Rockey said. “We were able to possess and a lot of times we were able to make our passes, work it through our midfielders, hit our forwards when we got numbers up and make things happen. Every once in a while a game comes when it happens and we were able to do it from the beginning. Eight goals is a lot.”
Elma grabbed control of the match in the first 17 minutes. The Eagles first shot on goal found the net when Sutherby sent a cross to Alicia Hook in the ninth minute. Hook chipped in a shot from about five yards out to give Elma the lead for good. Just more than two minutes later, Elma’s Jillian Bieker made a run up the left side and beat La Center goalkeeper Morgan Tolbert to put the Eagles up 2-0.
In the 17th minute, Peyton Elliott made a run in deep toward the end line, turned and found Molly Johnston at the top of the box. Johnston blasted in a shot from about 15 yards out to give Elma a 3-0 lead, but La Center would answer.
Less than a minute later, Kaylie Faul slipped a shot past Elma goalkeeper Holli Ray to put the Wildcats on the scoreboard. However, Elma answered with three more goals.
La Center worked to push up to create offense throughout the contest, but the Wildcats operated with a flat backfield, which the Eagles exposed with long passes to streaking forwards including Sutherby.
Sutherby got the first goal of her hat trick in the 21st minute when she ran under a through ball and beat the keeper one-on-one with a shot from about 12 yards out. She added another goal six minutes later off a cross by Kassedy Olson that was tipped out in front by the goalkeeper before Sutherby hammered it home.
Johnston added her second goal of the game off a corner in the 31st minute. Tolbert jumped to tap the ball out, but caught just a piece of the ball and it feel near her feet where Johnston fought for it and chipped it in to make it 6-1.
La Center wouldn’t go quietly into the muddy, cold night. The Wildcats added another goal in the 32nd minute on a shot by Kaiya Villiness and Villiness deflected a shot into the goal just moments before the whistle sounded for halftime.
Ray came out victorious on a penalty kick in the 38th minute to help keep the halftime score at 6-3. A hand ball was called in the box on Elma and Ellie Johnson lined up for the kick. Johnson shot left, but Ray guessed right and was able to bat the ball away before a rebound could be kicked.
Coming out of halftime, Elma needed just seven minutes to light up the scoreboard again. Sutherby ran under a through ball from Tawni Heller and beat the keeper from 10 yards.
Johnson scored the Wildcats final goal on a blast from 15 yards out, but Elma put together a connection to answer in stoppage time. Elliott had the ball knocked away by the keeper, but it rolled out to Johnston, who found Olson open on the right side for the goal to cap the score.
“They were clicking and they were making things happen,” Rockey said. “I’m just really proud to be going this far into the district tournament.”
