OLYMPIA — Parker Udo had yet to score on her home turf at Ingersoll Stadium in her young prep soccer career. The sophomore yearned for the memory of putting her team on the scoreboard in front of her family and friends.
In a 20-minute span on Tuesday, Udo got her wish. And then she got it again. And again.
Udo secured her first career hat trick before the halftime buzzer Tuesday night as the Olympia girls soccer team drubbed Capital 6-0 in the rivalry known as the Fettucine Bowl. She scored three of the Bears’ four first-half goals, and Olympia kept its foot on the gas pedal with a couple more connections in the second half.
“I think it was just the adrenaline because they’re our rivals,” Udo said of her big day. “It was also all of the people around me. I put myself in positions, and they did all the work to get it to me, which was really nice and helpful. We worked really, really well together on offense.”
Olympia immediately clicked against Capital. The Bears secured a corner kick three minutes into the match, and a minute later, Makenzie Bendiksen struck the left side of the net with a goal, her first of the season.
It was an offensive clinic in the first half, and a fast one at that. Olympia quickly identified gaps in the defense and pinpointed accurate passes to attackers, who found countless ways to get open in space.
Udo, Mika Meconi and Aspen Mayes all earned open shots that flew wide of the net before Udo scored her first goal in the 18th minute to put the Bears up 2-0. Nine minutes later, Olympia stole a Capital corner kick, and Udo connected for the second time, and her third goal came in the 37th minute to give Olympia a 4-0 halftime advantage.
“She’s just so composed. Even seeing her last year, we were excited for what her future would look like,” Olympia head coach Tamara Liska said of Udo. “She was in the right place at the right time. You can see how well she threads that ball. She has an incredible eye.”
After junior goalkeeper Luna Manzanares started in the net in the first half, Capital turned to junior Eliza Gantenbein in the second half. Coaches praised Gantenbein’s willingness, despite battling nerves, to rally the troops at halftime and get the Cougars back into the game. She notched a couple of saves early in the second half.
Capital’s Ella Reeves had a good look at a penalty kick in the 47th minute, but she missed wide left, and Olympia’s free kick a minute later was saved by Gantenbein.
Udo nearly scored her fourth goal of the night in the 55th minute from about 20 yards out, but her shot clanked off the top of the crossbar. Less than a minute later, Malia Satre made up for the miss with a goal.
Meconi made a living in the attacking third in the second half, even earning a penalty kick in the 64th minute, but Gantenbein made an impressive diving save that sent the visiting Capital student section into a frenzy. In the final five minutes, Gantenbein made an even better diving save in a one-on-one situation with Meconi. She finished with seven saves in the second half alone.
“She was an absolute beast today,” Capital head coach Adriana Montes said. “She really wanted to settle the team and get them back on track. Having her there really established my backline, and that trickled up to the other players.”
In the 72nd minute, freshman Vivienne Roach dished a pass to junior Gracie McCaughan, who ditched her light blue goalkeeper kit in the second half for a navy kit and knocked in the sixth Bears goal of the night on a header. Olympia racked up 25 total shots.
“We’re continuing to make strides with our movement of the ball. I’m very happy with where it’s going,” Liska said. “We started off on an incredible foot last week against Camas. It’s definitely the goal to maintain the little things that we’re working on and not getting complacent.”
After the game, the Olympia girls presented Capital’s Sophia Phillips with a note and snacks in a small gift bag as a reward for her sportsmanship. It’s a tradition that has run throughout the Bears girls soccer program, from varsity to C-team, for several years. Liska was inspired to start the tradition by the Black Hills girls soccer team, which did the same token of appreciation after each game.
“Sportsmanship is a big thing in our program. Getting to celebrate others who exhibit that in a positive way, we want to celebrate that,” Liska said. “If they’re taking the bus home, we want to give little extra goodies to them.”
Capital (0-2) has run into two powerful opponents in W.F. West and Olympia in the first two games of the season. Montes, a former University of Oregon midfielder, told her young team after the loss Tuesday night that they will learn much more from losing than from winning, and she believes her team will be battle-tested by the time they reach the league slate.
“Losses have a lot of learning moments. It’s moments like this that the athletes learn the most,” Montes said. “They’re obviously fighters. They took a lot of beating. They were beaten up in the first half, and they re-established themselves in the second half and still found opportunities.”
Olympia (2-0) has not surrendered a goal in 160 minutes to start this season. The Bears will look to keep that going when they host Union (1-2) Thursday night, while Capital will look to earn its first win at home against Black Hills (1-0-1).
