United Escapes with Important Victory

By Gregg Pohll of Southwest Preps

Emma Luhn stood in the loneliest spot on the field. She was assigned to kick the ball towards Napavine Goalkeeper Sam Grove who had been brilliant all evening, but especially during tie-break shootout.

Emma Luhn made her shot during a tie-breaker shoot-out against Napavine on Tuesday evening.

As it was, Luhn's shot went just to the left of the Napavine goalies' outstretched arms and into the net, giving Toledo-Winlock United a 2-1 victory in Southwest Washington soccer.

Both teams have post season aspirations in the back of their mind. United is now 6-1, 6-3 overall and tied for 1st place with Montesano. Napavine is one of two 2B teams in District IV and are battling with Ocosta for placement into a reginal tournament.

Defense was the name of the game for both teams on a rainy evening. United dominated the ball location, but only squeezed six shots beyond the Napavine defensive line. In true form, the only United score was off of a penalty kick in the 57th minute. When the kick bounced off of Keeper Grove, a hustling Brittany Hope pursued the rebound and placed it in the goal.

Napavine released only four shots, but some might comment about quality rather than quantity.

Napavine got their goal early (8th minute) with a break-away Emily Potter with an assist by Elaun Sherwood.

Napavine's defense was stingy and the Tiger Coach Allen Anderson lauded his team for their efforts. "It is only the 2nd goal" in recent games.

United's agressive Mercy Crocker met stern Tiger defense all evening.

United Coach Horst Malunat had nothing but good things to say about Napavine. "They flat-out out-worked us".

As for Luhn, Malunat has a distaste for the tie-break shoot-out, but he was glad she could be the heroine. "She missed a kick in the Montesano game that was really big. This is really good for her".

It is not like the bar was set all that high. Of ten kickers, only one from each team found the net during the shoot-out. Luhn ran onto the field with the possibility of winning the game for her team.

She admited that her confident stride to the muddy piece of turf in front of the goal was more show than substance. "I am so glad to have my rhythm back. I have not been making shots in practice so I wasn't all that confident".

Confidence is fickle, perhaps just like the game of soccer.