By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– The Chemeketa Community College Women’s Soccer team worked their way back into the game against Portland Community College on Wednesday afternoon at the Capitol FC Facility in Salem.
The Panthers got on the board within the first minute, thanks to a Allison Aldinger goal 48 seconds into the game. PCC came out with energy, catching the Storm off-guard, but Chemeketa were able to settle things down and went to work.
They went back to what they’ve been working on: Playing quick, working outside and creating spacing. And eventually it led to them scoring.
Their first goal came in the 41st minute by Kenya Bautista (Springfield-grad) that tied it at one. The 1-1 tie remained entering halftime and into the second half before Bautista gave the Storm their first lead of the game in the 63rd minute. It was 2-1 Chemeketa at this point.
“We’ve been working a lot on playing quick and to the outside to the width. Two of our goals were scored by using our spaces and players coming in and pushing through. That was great. When a team comes out with a lot of energy, we don’t know how to deal with it, so today, it took us a bit but we were able to settle the tempo, stuck to playing our game and I think that went well. So we’re going to build off of that,” said Chemeketa Head Coach Kaylan Okerstrom.
With the Top 4 spots in the NWAC South Region so tightly contested, and Chemeketa and Portland among the teams battling for three playoff spots, this wasn’t going to be an easy game going in—and it certainly wasn’t going to be an easy one to the finish line.
Both teams continued to battle, and had their chances over the final 27 minutes of play. Until a free kick was awarded to Portland in stoppage time.
Lining up at about midfield, Panthers goalie Evelyn Hollinsworth booted it towards the Storm goal and got enough leg to get to the goal and enough accuracy to place it in the right spot to just to get it by Chemeketa’s Addison Mulkey to tie the game up at two going into the final whistle.
It’s a wake-up call for the Storm, points out Okerstrom. There’s a very slim margin for errors with how tight things are in the top half of the NWAC South Standings, and Chemeketa going to take it to heart moving forward into their final five games of the season.
“We’re close to the top and every point matters, this hurts. It’s because it was so close, I think we definitely need to use this as fuel to adjust to how we’re performing. We had some off-moments and we’ve been working a lot on playing the full 45 in each half,” said Okerstrom. “Respect to Portland, they came out with some energy and we didn’t do enough on our offensive end to be able to finish opportunities and that left a really slim margin. We made some mistakes, and that’s all it takes to be even.
“We’re ok with the tie, it’s points. I definitely think this game is a wake-up call.”
Bautista had a two-goal brace in the win while Mulkey made six saves in the 2-2 tie.
Chemeketa are on the road Saturday against Klamath before returning to Salem on Wednesday to play Rogue Community College.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
