Lady Grizzlies eliminated after controversial call

Published 1:55 pm Monday, November 16, 2009

The Bear Creek girls’ soccer team lost a heartbreaker 2-1 to the Napavine Tigers in a state quarterfinal game at Sammamish High School last Saturday night.

Both teams’ defenses stepped up early and allowed very few good looks, with the Grizzlies not able to take a shot on goal for the first 19 minutes.

On just the second shot of the game for Bear Creek, sophomore midfielder Morgan Rial scored in the 23rd minute, pounding a shot right at Napavine senior goalkeeper Sam Grove, but the ball was fumbled and rolled into the side of the goal for a fortunate score which held up through the half.

In the later stages of the game, however, Napavine dominated time of possession and scored the equalizer in the 48th minute on a header off a corner kick, which set up the game’s defining play in the 53rd minute.

With the ball on the far wing, a Napavine player kicked the ball, which glanced off a Bear Creek player’s arm, and a controversial handball penalty kick was called much to the dismay of the Bear Creek fans.

With the game on the line, Tigers’ defender Jessi Atkins lined her penalty kick into the left side of the net to put her team up 2-1, a lead that Napavine would never relinquish.

“The ref totally cost us the game,” said Grizzlies’ head coach Kailee Blankenship, echoing the sentiment that relayed through the Bear Creek camp after the contest. “That shouldn’t have been a handball, it bounced off her elbow and was totally unintentional. She didn’t even gain control of it… but (in the end) it was the girls that decided the game, not the ref.”

Even after the tough loss, nobody could have predicted early in the season, after the Grizzlies lost their first four games, that they would have even made it to the “Big Dance.”

“I’m very proud, we played our hearts out, we went farther than anybody thought we’d go this year,” Blankenship said. “We have a pretty young team and some great senior leadership, they’re the ones that really carried the team as far as we went because of their leadership, their heart and desire. They always gave 110 percent.”

For more photos of this match, go to photographer Matt Campbell’s Web site at www.sportspixs.com.