TUMWATER — All she needed was a chance at redemption.
With five minutes left in the first half, Tumwater junior Brielle Clark had the perfect opportunity to put the Thunderbirds on the scoreboard Tuesday night. The ball scooted past Montesano’s goalkeeper Amelia Willis just in front of the net, and Clark broke free for fractions of a moment, but she ran out of room with the right side of the goalpost approaching quickly. The ball rolled helplessly inside the side of the net.
In the final seconds of the second half, it appeared the sky was falling for Tumwater when Montesano’s Jaelyn Butterfield shocked the home crowd with a 79th-minute goal to give the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead.
The T-Birds wished upon a star, and Clark answered the prayer immediately.
Just mere seconds after Butterfield’s go-ahead goal, Tumwater’s Sadie Hedin picked off a pass and booted it ahead to Clark. The junior forward raced past Montesano defender Liv Weeks and pounded the ball through the net from about 15 yards with her left foot with seconds to spare, knotting the final score at 1-1.
“I don’t really know what happened,” an exhausted Clark said. “It just happened so quickly. It was like panic mode, and I just snapped into it and we scored. I knew that I had to get a goal or else we were gonna lose the first game of our season. We all love each other so much that we just wanted to play for each other.”
While the final result wasn’t a win in the standings, it’s a significant accomplishment for a young team against a squad that advanced to the 1A state semifinals last fall. Tumwater is learning what it’s made of after the graduation of two-time EvCo MVP Kayla Pope, 2025 EvCo Offensive Player of the Year Sophie Boatright, and four First Team All-EvCo honorees.
But the T-Birds may have found their next star in Clark, who was a Second Team All-EvCo selection as a sophomore last year. She has been thrust into a new leadership role, but she’s attacked the new mindset just as she attacked the Montesano defense all night.
“I think she recognized the opportunity and seized it. She obviously has a tremendous amount of skill, and her teammates around her have a lot of confidence in her,” Bergquist said of Clark. “She’s somebody who will put her head down and work for what she wants.”
The first half of the season-opener for both teams was as expected. There were moments of sloppiness, but there were some impressive moments where each team flashed aggression on both sides of the ball. Tumwater was especially stout in the defensive final third, particularly on set pieces, throughout the first half behind freshman goalkeeper Ellie Plang.
Montesano had several chances to jump ahead in the first half, none better than Ashley Hill’s free kick from less than 20 yards out that missed wide right in the 24th minute. Both teams embraced a very physical nature of play, with plenty of fouls and free kicks.
But in the 35th minute, Clark brought the crowd to its feet when she took the ball right out of Willis' grasp and had nothing but an empty net in front of her. However, the ball spun just a bit too far out of her reach on her best look of several good chances she created in the first half.
“Our phrase as a team is, ‘Next one.’ So even if you mess up on one, you’re already moved on to the next one, and that is exactly what she did,” Bergquist said of Clark. “She just focused on the next one, had a short memory, and she just worked.”
After a scoreless first half, Montesano came out assertive on the offensive end to start the second half, but Plang held her own with a couple of saves in the first five minutes. In the 49th minute, Clark earned another strong chance off a pass from Emery Schmidt, but her header missed. A minute later, a Jenna Graves corner kick caused some chaos in front of the goal, yet Montesano booted it away following a brief scrum.
Butterfield produced Montesano’s best shot yet in the 57th when she struck the ball just wide and high to the left of the goal on an attack from the right side.
Over the course of the final 20 minutes, Tumwater’s defense tightened. Junior Clara Leneker was everywhere on the pitch, knocking away passes and blocking shots. Graves also made clutch tackles in the final third.
With just a minute to go in a scoreless heavyweight matchup, Butterfield sprinted down the pitch, ran through two Tumwater defenders and set herself up for an open look. She snuck the shot into the left side of the net past the diving Plang for the first goal of the night and what many assumed would be the last.
Not if Clark had anything to say about it.
As the Montesano fans grabbed their coats and prepared to celebrate, Hedin intercepted a pass with her chest and floated a pass ahead of Clark, who was scrapping with Wells for positioning as they raced for the ball. Wells whiffed while trying to kick the ball away. As Clark sprinted past her, Willis came up out of the net to defend Clark, who sent the left-footed kick into the left side of the empty net. The final whistle sounded as Tumwater celebrated seconds after the equalizer.
“We just had to go. There wasn’t really any time to think about anything,” Clark said of the team’s mindset after Montesano’s goal. “I wanted to play for my team, and I wanted to win for my team.”
Controlling the controllables and focusing on attitude and effort have been emphasized in practice for Bergquist and her young team so far. In a chaotic final minute against a 1A powerhouse, the T-Birds proved they can punch back when they’re on the ropes.
“That is just about the best response that I could have asked for from them,” Bergquist said. “I’m excited to see this is how we’re starting the season. I think it’s a great starting point as a squad.”
Tumwater (0-0-1) will head north to face River Ridge Thursday night at South Sound Stadium.
