Facing the Montesano Bulldogs this season has come down to a simple choice for most teams — pick your poison.

In Thursday’s 1A District 4 semifinal matchup, the Tenino Beavers decided they would limit the scoring opportunities of league MVP and leading goal-scorer Mikayla Stanfield.

But that choice meant other Montesano weapons would have room to roam, namely Jaiden Morrison.

Morrison made the Beavers pay for their choice.

The senior midfielder scored two goals in leading the Bulldogs to a 4-0 win at Jack Rottle Field in Montesano.

The win sent Monte (15-1 overall) to the district championship game to face La Center (10-3-1) — which defeated Elma 3-2 in overtime in the other semifinal — at 2 p.m. Saturday at King’s Way Christian High School in Vancouver.

The Bulldogs earned an opportunity to defend its district crown with a red-hot first half that started on a set-piece that Monte has been trying to convert all season long.

In the seventh minute of the game, Monte earned a corner kick off of a Morrison push down the wing. Bulldogs junior forward Anabelle Estrada delivered the corner directly toward midfielder Paige Lisherness. The reigning league defensive MVP got her head on the ball, redirecting it above leaping Tenino keeper Trinity Tafoya for a 1-0 lead.

The set-piece goal was a play Monte had been trying to accomplish in-game throughout the season, and it provided a spark to the Bulldogs offense.

“It kind of kicked us into gear and jacked us up a little bit,” Lisherness said. “We’ve been working on doing that play this whole year. So to finally get it was kind of a big goal for us.”

“That was a great goal by Paige,” Stanfield said. “I think it kind of set us on fire from there. We didn’t let up.”

Monte head coach Fidel Sanchez said the goal in the early minutes of a tense playoff rivalry game helped “calm the nerves” of his players.

“It’s hard to beat a team three times. We know Tenino so well, and they know us so well that we prepare for each other,” he said. “I’m just glad we were able to get that first goal and calm the nerves down and give an advantage to our team early on. That was huge and we talked about that before the game, ‘Let’s get on board right away.’”

From that point on the first half, and the game for that matter, belonged to the third-ranked Bulldogs, and it was once again Morrison’s applied pressure down the wing that bore fruitful results.

The senior midfielder consistently took advantage of space on the outside, often getting past her defender and then looking to shoot or send one of multiple dangerous crosses through the Beavers penalty area.

RYAN SPARKS | THE DAILY WORLD Montesano’s Jaiden Morrison (7) sends a cross toward the front of the Tenino net during the Bulldogs 4-0 win over Tenino in a 1A District 4 semifinal game Thursday at Jack Rottle Field in Montesano. Morrison scored two goals in the match to lead Monte to its second-straight berth in the district-championship game.

Morrison gave the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead in the 22nd minute when she made a run down the wing then ripped a shot past Tafoya into the upper right-corner of the net.

Five minutes later, Morrison took a nice feed from Stanfield — who drew a lot of attention from Beavers defenders whenever she touched the ball — stepped to her right and squeezed a shot just inside the near post for a 3-0 lead.

Stanfield, who has scored many of her league-high 29 goals this season off Morrison assists, said she doesn’t mind drawing in opposing defenses to create opportunities for her teammates.

“It just shows that we have a lot of very good goal-scorers on our team,” said Stanfield, who combined with Morrison has 48 of the team’s 70 goals this season. “(Tenino) did clog up the middle, but we have really great weapons on the outside so just moving the ball to the outside and using what we have out there is what we did.”

Sanchez said he was surprised at how much room the Beavers allowed Morrison to maneuver in.

“I was surprised because Tenino knows her well,” he said, adding that in previous games the Beavers have had multiple defenders mark her. “I think a couple of times they let her do her own thing out there and she made them pay for it.”

Another teammate that stepped up was junior midfielder Lily Causey, who took a through pass from Stanfield and outran three Tenino defenders before pushing a shot past Tafoya for the Bulldogs’ fourth goal of the game in the 38th minute.

RYAN SPARKS | THE DAILY WORLD Montesano midfielder Lily Causey scores after receiving a through pass from teammate Mikayla Stanfield in the first half of the Bulldogs 4-0 win over Tenino on Thursday in Montesano. The victory earned Monte a spot in the 1A District 4 title game against La Center on Saturday in Vancouver.

Monte had several additional chances to score, mostly on Morrison runs and subsequent crosses toward the middle, but neither team was able to put any more goals on the scoreboard as Monte left the pitch with a 4-0 victory.

The Bulldogs defeated Tenino in last season’s district championship game and will have a chance to make history with a win over No. 6 La Center on Saturday. A victory will give the Bulldogs back-to-back district titles for the first time in school history and a ton of momentum heading into the state tournament, something they did not get the opportunity to compete in last season.

“(Winning another district title) would mean a lot to us,” Stanfield said. “We’ve put a lot of work in this season and having it pay off would be great.”

“We have a chance to go back-to-back district champions and that’s something that’s never been done at this school,” Sanchez said. “We’re all about making history.”

As for what Monte will need to do to defeat La Center, the formula remains the same as it has during the entirety of an impressive Bulldogs season.

“I think we need to play just as hard as we did today, play even harder,”Lisherness said. “And just keep the pressure on and keep pushing and pushing.”

Tenino 0 0 — 0

Montesano 4 0 — 4