CAMAS — Three times this season has Camas’ dynamic offense been held below three goals. High-scoring performances have been a feature of the Papermakers’ season.
But on Wednesday night, it took a gut-it-out win to extend their run deeper into the postseason — one that the Papermakers say was, despite the lack of volume in goals, was a return to form.
And, perhaps more importantly, a timely boost of confidence.
Camas scored its lone goal in the 33rd minute and despite a bevy of second half breakaways, balls bouncing through the opposing box and offensive rhythm, edged Wesco champion Jackson 1-0 at Doc Harris Stadium to return to the 4A state quarterfinals.
Camas shut out a team that scored 52 goals on the year, allowed just nine and had only one loss coming into Wednesday night.
And it did so banged up. Center defender Liz Parker played the whole game despite an injured ankle from the district semifinals. And Maddie Kemp played with a strained hamstring, one caused her to exit the game with nine minutes to play.
“We’re a flexible team,” Camas goalkeeper Elaina DeMerritt said.
The Papermakers scored on a loose ball scrum in the 18-yard box in the 33rd minute. Callie Rheaume sent a corner kick into the middle of the box, and the ball bounced around a gaggle of players furiously trying to simultaneously clear it and score, and landed in front of Kemp, who volleyed it into the back of the net.
Was it how the corner was drawn up? Certainly not.
But Rheaume, the Papermakers’ go-to set piece markswoman, figures if she puts her corners around the penalty kick spot, something good will eventually happen.
By taking the lead in the first half, Camas cooled any nerves it had entering the game.
“It makes us settle down so we can play our game,” Rheaume said.
Most of the night, midfield/forwards Jazzy Paulson and Jenna Efraimson created chances with their speed on the wings, but it was matched by similarly quick-footed outside backs from Jackson.
“If they were a little bit slower I think we would have scored more,” Kemp said. “They weren’t like anything we haven’t faced before.”
The Timberwolves stuck center back Bonnie Martin on Kemp, which proved a tough mark for the defending 4A state player of the year.
That helped clamp Camas’ second half attacking efforts, of which there were many.
Carla Jooste’s shot from just outside the 18-yard box hit the crossbar and bounced on the goal line with 13 minutes left. A minute later, Kemp found space and ripped a shot from inside the box that went wide right. And Efraimson beat the outside back down he left side and sent a cross bouncing in front of the goal, which Paulson touched just wide of the right post.
Jackson countered with its own chances, including a shot off the crossbar in the 68th minute.
“I think they found their sense of urgency because we had scored and this is an all-or-nothing game,” DeMerrit, who had three saves in the shutout, said. “I knew they were going to come into the second half with more urgency and more spirit to score.”
That kept the intensity high throughout much of the second half.
Camas’ crowd, which Rheaume dubbed the loudest she’s ever played for in her four years, only added to the environment.
After a district outing in which they felt mired in a funk, the Papermakers felt a return to normalcy on Wednesday night, even though they only squeaked a goal out of their many looks on offense.
It was the perfect prequel to a quarterfinal game Saturday, when they host Bellarmine Prep in a rematch of the same game last season.
“This was the game we needed to get past,” Rheaume said. “We know we can win, so we can have the confidence to come out and not be nervous.”
