By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
TUALATIN, Ore.– It wasn’t the ending to the season that the South Salem Girls Soccer team wanted, but they sure did battle until the end.
The Saxons came out firing the first ten minutes of Tuesday’s 6A State Play-In game against the Timberwolves. They were aggressive defensively, pushing tempo and creating opportunities on the offensive side of the ball. South Salem was setting the tone from the start as they would have hoped for.
“Yeah, the first ten minutes were great. it was awesome, and then after the first goal, they kind of put their heads down. But I’m really proud of how they did. We were trying to get the magic back from the first ten minutes,” said Saxon Head Coach Jamie Rodriguez.
Tualatin broke the scoreless tie in the 17th minute and quickly added to it a few minutes later to make it a 2-0 ball-game. The home squad in the Play-In squad were able to flip momentum into their favor after that as they continued to press the South Salem defense.
And the Saxons rose to the occasion, they kept the Timberwolves to those two goals, but just couldn’t muster enough magic as they did in those opening few minutes as the season drew to a close on Tuesday.
“It’s a game of taking advantage of the other team’s mistakes and we made two big mistakes and they took advantage of it. They were pretty aggressive and fighting until the end, just trying to get one so we can get another,” smiles Rodriguez. “It just didn’t happen, but I’m really proud of the girls with how hard they try and how hard they played.”
The Saxons closed the year 7-6-2 and went 7-1-2 in Central Valley Conference play.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
