Soccer: Cedarcrest shuts down East Valley

LAKEWOOD — The chances just never came for the East Valley girls soccer team.

Now, neither will a shot at the Red Devils second championship following Friday afternoon’s 3-0 loss to Cedarcrest at the Class 2A soccer semifinals at Harry Lang Stadium.

East Valley (17-5) will try for third place today against another team from the powerful Cascade Conference, Archbishop Murphy, at 10 this morning.

“We just couldn’t find it today,” East Valley coach Gary Mellick. “You get to this point and you have teams with really good defenses, so it becomes harder and harder to score. The opportunities you get, you have to take advantage of them.”

East Valley, making its fifth-straight appearance at state and third trip to the final four, was looking for its first championship since defeating Yakima Valley rival Naches Valley 2-1 in the 2000 championship game.

“I think the initial disappointment is there,” Mellick said. “Unfortunately they had a while in the second half for that to set in, so that might help in terms of getting over it sooner, than if it were a heartbreaker.”

The loss ends an eight-match winning streak for the Red Devils, who hadn’t given up more than one goal in a game in nearly a month.

It’s also the first time they’ve been shut out in nearly two months.

“They have a good defense, we just couldn’t get the last pass to set up a good shot,” Mellick said.

The Wolves (15-6-1) advance to play defending champion and unbeaten Fife (19-0-1) at 4 p.m. It is the second trip the championship game for Cedarcrest since 1992, the year the Red Wolves won their only state title as 1A Tolt.

Cedarcrest senior Brooke Chapman scored the first goal and assisted on the last for the Duval school.

Wolves coach Denis Watts, praised the strength of the Cascade Conference – particularly Archbishop Murphy and Class 1A semifinalist King’s – for developing the Red Wolves.

“It really made us a much better-prepared team,” Watts said.

Chapman opened the scoring in the 30th minute when she scored on a rebound after an Erin Kearney-shot bounced off the post.

The Red Wolves added second-half goals in the 46th minute, when freshman forward Maggie Pleis hammered home a shot from 16 yards out, and the 50th minute, when Rachel Kevin scored on a Chapman pass in front of the goal.

First half: 1, Cedarcrest, Brooke Chapman (Erin Kearney), 30:00.

Second half: 2, Cedarcrest, Maggie Pleis (Ashton Griffin), 46:00; 3, Cedarcrest, Rachel Kevin (Chapman), 50:00.

Saves: Not available.

— The Seattle Times contributed to this report