ANACORTES — A minute before she scored the winning goal against Anacortes, Sedro-Woolley’s Mackenzie Shipley was barely able to stand. Good thing for the Cubs that cramps heal quickly.
Shipley took an entry pass from Emily Bruscas out of midair and blasted it home at the very end of regulation Thursday to give the Cubs a 3-2 victory over Anacortes in a Northwest Conference girls’ soccer game.
“You keep battling, and good things happen,” Sedro-Woolley coach Bernd Strom said. “The second half was kind of like our whole season.”
The win was the third in five games for the Cubs (3-7 conference, 3-10 overall) after starting 0-8. It also avenged a 3-0 loss to Anacortes in the season opener.
“Our defense was much more organized this time,” Shipley said. “We were really tight.”
A late flurry by the Cubs reversed a second half that was dominated by the Seahawks (5-5, 6-7). Anacortes had most of the play and the only six shots on goal until stoppage time.
Two of those shots were blasts off the foot of Jasper Sortun, which erased a 2-0 halftime deficit. Sortun blasted home a free kick from the top of the 18-yard box in the 47th minute. In the 63rd, off a counter attack, she took a pass and dribbled up the left side, curled in and found the upper right corner of the net to tie the score.
“Our girls showed a characteristic of not giving up,” Anacortes coach Ken Welk said. “It tells me our girls can battle back. We hadn’t been doing that. It was a test of our adversity, and I’d say we passed that test.”
The Seahawks kept the pressure on until Sedro-Woolley mounted an offensive late. Bruscas blasted a shot that Anacortes goalie Micaela Baca dove to stop to preserve the shutout, and the Seahawks survived the ensuing corner kick.
A minute later, Shipley blasted a shot that sailed high and left and fell to the ground.
“My calf cramped and rolled over on it,” Shipley said. “Usually it goes away. It’s just tight.”
Limping badly, she stayed in the game and worked the calf out, finally looking at full strength just in time for Bruscas to line up for the free kick from about 35 yards out. Bruscas hit a line drive that Shipley took about a foot off the ground and knocked home from about 12 yards out.
“Emily put it in the right spot. That’s good stuff,” Strom said.
“I knew how she was going to play it in,” Shipley said. “Emily played it perfect. Luckily I was unmarked.”
The teams split the attack fairly evenly in the first half, but the Cubs were the only ones to take advantage. Shipley found Bruscas three minutes in for the early lead, and Alayna Martin scored off a rebound from a Maree Reed shot in the 24th to account for the Cubs lead.
• Eric Francis can be reached at 360-416-2131 or by e-mail at
