CAMAS — If soccer matches were decided by shots on goal, Saturday’s Class 4A bi-district girls soccer playoff between Camas and Curtis would have been a blowout.
Camas outshot the Vikings from University Place 20-3, but with six minutes to play the Papermakers still found themselves in a scoreless tie.
But in the 75th minute, Parker Mairs was able to cross the ball in front of the Curtis goal, and Bella Burns punched it in, leading Camas to a 2-0 win that clinched a trip to the 4A state playoffs.
“At the start of the season, they set goals, and this was the ultimate goal – to get to state, then get to the final four,” Camas coach Keri Tomasetti said. “They worked hard and persevered like today. They had the game handled, but you have to put the ball in the back of the net for it to be a win. So they pulled out that perseverance and that grit and got it taken care of, finally. It just took longer than we would have liked.”
As the stadium clock wound down in the second half, the Papermakers could be heard through a strong east wind at Camas Stadium calling out how much time was left – “20 minutes … 17 minutes … 13 minutes.”
Tomasetti said the message at halftime to her players was to not let up their intensity.
“There are teams that can come out in the second half and think they’ve got it, and they don’t,” Tomasetti said. “It doesn’t matter what the score is, you’ve got to come out hard. So they just needed to come out, play their game, high winds aside, move the ball around and play their game.”
After Burns’ goal, the Papermakers also needed not to let up on the defensive end, and they didn’t. Eventually, Burns fed Mairs on a counter, and Mairs converted for the clinching goal in the final minute.
Camas advances now to the 4A bi-district semifinals on Tuesday, where the Papermakers will face Puyallup or Kentridge at 7 p.m. at Curtis High.
Tomasetti hopes Saturday’s win will help Camas deal with adversity down the road.
“It goes to show that regardless of the level of team you are playing, when you get to the higher levels of the postseason, the nerves kick in a little bit more,” Tomasetti said. “And that’s a part of district and state play. It’s the nerves, not just what you can or can’t do on the field.”
CAMAS 2, CURTIS 0
Camas
Goals (assist) – Bella Burns (Parker Mairs); Mairs (Burns). Goalkeeper saves – Keely Wieczorek 3.
Curtis
Goalkeeper saves – Bella Cunningham 9.
Halftime – 0-0
