RIDGEFIELD HIGH SCHOOL’S girls soccer team is shown here after finishing second at the Class 2A state tournament. The Spudders, who finished third last year, defeated Ellensburg 5-1 in the state semifinals Friday and then lost to Squalicum in the championship match Saturday. Both games were played at Shoreline Stadium in Seattle.
Ridgefield High School girls soccer coach Robby Trimbo would never place limitations on his team. But when the Spudders finished third in the Class 2A state tournament last year, even he had to wonder if his program would ever experience a greater achievement.
“Last year we thought, ‘could this be the top of where we can go,’’’ said Trimbo, whose team answered that question this weekend when it finished second at the semifinal weekend of the 2A state tournament at Shoreline Stadium in Seattle.
Ridgefield opened the tournament with an eye-opening 5-1 victory over Ellensburg in the semifinals Friday. The Spudders then lost 4-0 to Squalicum in the championship game to finish second. Ridgefield finished the season with an 18-3-2 overall record.
Despite the loss in the final, the Spudders and their coach marveled at the lofty perch the Ridgefield program as ascended to.
“More so than any individual season, it’s the result of a program in the last two years going to the final four back-to-back, which is incredible,’’ Trimbo said. “We’re still a smaller 2A school and to lose the seniors we lost last year and this still happens, is incredible.’’
There were a total of 10 seniors that were a part of the Spudders’ program, eight of which were included on the roster that made the trek to the state semifinals. That senior group included Ashton Rogers, Kelly Casper, Sarah Kaufman, Taylor Salewski, Riley Smetzler, Livee jones, Lexi Wells and Madison Ochoa.
“More so than just the starters, I think they’re all tremendously important, even the ones who played on the junior varsity, they all did a great job setting the expectations and attitude and to me that’s just as important as the seniors playing on the varsity,’’ Trimbo said. “The work by that entire class helped insure our future.’’
It’s the athletic circle of life, according to Trimbo.
“We’re starting to feel like it’s starting to take on a life of its own,’’ Trimbo said of the Spudders’ success. “One of the highlights is watching the young players take on new roles and accept greater challenges.’’
A young player who did just that in the semifinal victory over Ellensburg was Hailey Harris. The sophomore forward scored twice in the first six minutes of the game to get Ridgefield kickstarted and the Spudders never looked back.
“She’s been an up-and-coming sophomore for us and the state semifinals is quite the game for her to show up like that,’’ Trimbo said.
After Harris set the tone, Ridgefield’s standout junior midfielder Taryn Ries took over, scoring three goals in the second half to build on the Spudders’ lead.
“You prepare like crazy for these things and then you hope it goes to plan,’’ Trimbo said. “It’s pretty safe to say that was better than we planned. The girls learned so much from last year. They had such a better idea of what to expect. They didn’t appear nervous. They just appeared eager and ready.’’
Ellensburg scored its only goal in the 71st minute – with Ridgefield already leading 5-0 – when Rachel Jeffries booted a 30-yarder into the net.
“The only goal we gave up was a world-class shot,’’ Trimbo said. “It really put into perspective for us the level of play at the final four. You make one mistake like that and the girl just absolutely blasted a shot from 30 yards. It was a moment that made you realize the team you’re playing is a very good team and we were very fortunate to be that far up on the scoreboard at that time.’’
Trimbo praised Smetzler and Erin Seigel for their play “winning balls in the air and controlling Ellensburg’s offense.’’
The Spudders played an even better team one night later in the championship game.
“We were in foreign territory and we knew Squalicum was very good,’’ Trimbo said of the championship game. “We were able to see them after our semifinal game so I knew going into that game what a huge challenge that would be.’’
Squalicum, from Bellingham, lost the 2013 state championship match but the Storm haven’t lost since – a stretch of 47 games that they have either won or tied. This season, Squalicum outscored its opponents 103-4.
Despite Squalicum’s excellence, Ridgefield only trailed 1-0 with 15 minutes to go in the game. About that time, Trimbo instructed his team to get aggressive on offense, advancing more players up the field.
“I wasn’t going to coach this team to lose, so we were going to go for it,’’ Trimbo said. “There’s no point in losing 1-0 as opposed to 10-0. So, we started pushing bodied forward and it was when we started pushing bodies forward that we gave up a couple more goals.’’
Ridgefield junior Brittanie Hoang received a Sportsmanship Award after the finals match and Smetzler received the same award after the semifinals match.
