The North Thurston girls soccer team won one of its most important games in years on Thursday, Oct. 22, as the Rams shut out Peninsula 2-0 to stay alive in the race for a district tournament spot.
In fact, North Thurston now holds sole possession of the final seventh playoff spot with its win and losses by Capital and River Ridge on Thursday. A loss by the Rams would’ve likely ended their playoff hopes.
Instead, North Thurston handed Peninsula its first loss since Sept. 29, and the torrid streak by freshman Londyn McKenzie was a huge reason why. The striker broke a scoreless tie with a goal in the 51st minute. Senior Nevaeh Rodriguez won the ball in the midfield and played a through ball to McKenzie, who touched it around the goalie rushing out and tapped it into the empty net.
In the 75th minute, Rodriguez connected with McKenzie again on another through ball, and McKenzie secured a brace. Defensively, goalkeeper Quincie Henderson earned the clean sheet.
“We had a pretty clear plan on how to shut them down and where we could be successful ourselves,” North Thurston assistant coach Tristan Glaser said. “The ladies bought in and fought really hard in the first half, and we had more confidence to play and take the game to them in the second half.”
The Rams (5-6-2, 4-5-1 Puget Sound League) will battle River Ridge (5-5-5, 3-5-2 PSL) on Tuesday, Oct. 27 in a game that will act as a play-in game for the District 3 3A Tournament. A tie would then fall to the Bellarmine-Capital game; if Capital wins in that scenario, the Cougars would clinch the seventh spot.
