After a successful summer and a positive showing in a jamboree earlier in the week, the Tenino girls soccer team was hoping that it would be able to carry that momentum into the beginning of the season.
The Beavers did just that in their opener against Ocosta on Thursday, racing away with a 9-0 mercy-rule victory on their home turf.
Tenino got on the board just three minutes in thanks to an Ocosta own goal, and Callie Mickelson scored her first goal of the season to make it 2-0 just three minutes later. In the 11th minute, Rayanna Mustoe added a third.
Kyla Watson added two goals in three minutes later in the half, and Mustoe scored her second just one minute after Watson’s.
“Ray’s wheels were so apparent in the wide area,” Tenino coach Trevor Fetbrandt said. “She can fly like the wind, and it’s really awesome seeing her get up and down the field the way that she can.”
Mickelson added two more in two minutes before the halftime whistle to record the hat trick, and in the second half, Maria Summers got on the scoresheet herself for Tenino’s ninth.
“Really, really excited to see a bunch of faces get on the scoresheet,” Fetbrandt said. “It was fun to see the rotation of players all being effective.”
In addition to the hat trick, Mickelson also tallied a pair of assists, giving her five goal contributions on the night.
“When she's an impact player in the game, it makes everyone else around her better,” Fetbrandt said. “She's so good at getting us in dangerous places on the field.”
Summers also finished with two assists, and both Kylie Gonia and Charley Jones notched assists of their own.
Regardless of what the scoreboard showed, Fetbrandt was most proud about how the Beavers settled into their style of soccer as the game went on.
“In the first 20 minutes, we didn’t look like we were executing the way we really wanted to,” Fetbrandt said. “We made a few adjustments, got back to the principles of play we emphasized, and the second half looked so much better. We really focused on possession versus the attacking chances, and it started to look more like Tenino soccer.”
The Beavers generated 16 shots while giving up just two, both of which were saved by Gracie Sweet.
“There’s a lot of film out there of us not giving up dangerous chances,” Fetbrandt said. “We are pinning teams back to where they can’t even threaten our goal … It’s so possession-oriented that it makes it hard for the other team to even find chances. We get to pick the tempo of the game and it really limits what other teams can do.”
The Beavers (1-0) will be back on the blacktop on Saturday to face Chelan in another non-league matchup.
“It’s gonna be a major focus to channel the performance that we had in the second half in this game,” Fetbrandt said. “We want to start the way we finished. The energy was never a doubt, but with the expectation of the things we talked about, there was a lot of opportunity for growth.”
