Mount Si girls soccer hangs tough with the conference's best | Photo Gallery

Fortune can be fickle. In the Mount Si girls soccer’s conference opener, at home Tuesday afternoon, Sept. 30, with Skyline, the game was in the Wildcats’ paws up until the final minute of regulation.

Fate intervened during a close battle at the Mount Si net, and, down one player, Mount Si girls battled the Spartans to a 1-1 draw.

Last week, players and coach Darren Brown were proud of how the Wildcats held off a tough, physical Skyline team.

Mount Si’s Miranda Fischer earned her first varsity goal in her first real game on varsity with 2:13 left in the first half.

“How sweet it was,” commented coach Brown. “Pure textbook!”

This was Fischer’s first full varsity game—“I came into the game nervous, but I was pumped,” she said.

She benefited from a lot of passes and possession (the order was Bella DiDomenico to Claire Johnson to Karli White to Jane Livingston) and got the finish.

“I turned to the center of the field, there was a hole, and a solid goal—took it!” Fischer said.

“We’ve been working on possession and linking up passes,” said midfielder KK Wallace. “That goal is exactly what we’ve been working on.”

Fischer “kept the ball up, which is what we’ve been looking for in a post,” said Johnson. “She turned and shot it. She did awesome!”

Skyline kept a lot of pressure on Mount Si, and the ball spent a good portion of the game on the Wildcat side. But Mount Si held off the Spartans until the final minute, in stoppage time.

Mount Si lost DiDomenico to a red card in that final minute, reportedly for using her hands to block what would have been a Skyline goal. The resulting penalty kick by Lauren Carson hit the net, and it was 1-1. Mount Si then went into double overtime, two five-minute halves. Neither team scored, and it ended as a tie.

“I’m really proud of the way the girls kept their composure,” said Brown. After facing Skyline, “a powerhouse,” Brown said, “We can hang with anyone.”

“It was extremely intense,” said goalkeeper Nellie Joselyn. “I’m super proud of how we came out. We gave it all. We went down a player, and we still held right there with them.”

Backing her up was “the whole defense line, they’re always there and they always have my back. I have their back, but they don’t let it get to me,” Joselyn said. “When it gets to me, it’s my turn to work.”

This was an emotional game for Johnson, “because we all did really well. We came together as a team. (Skyline) is the top team in Kingco. If we come out like this with every team, nothing can stop us.”

This could be the new rivalry for Mount Si. Mount Si played the team in a Sept. 23 non-conference match, falling 2-1.

“We came out really hard,” said Johnson, Mount Si’s physical Idaho-bound co-captain defender. “They came hard, too.”

“We wanted to beat this team so bad,” added Wallace, a senior who is committed to Central Washington. “We’re so physical at practice, we bring it into the game. We play hard for each other.”

Mount Si knew they were facing a challenge. Comparing 3A with 4A Kingco, “3A were scrappy and heart, we were able to keep up,” Johnson said. “Four-A girls are from higher-end clubs, and are really skilled, technically. It’s hard coming into that. We used our aggressiveness and speed to stay with them.”

“With three (defenders) in the back, we did so good,” Wallace said. Our pressure was so high up here, that we were on them when they got the ball. I didn’t even notice we were down a player. We played our hearts out.”

Joselyn, who is in year two as starting goalkeeper, says Mount Si can go far this season, as long as it has the heart.

“There’s so much raw talent on this team, the sky’s the limit with us,” she said. “We’ve just got to come out every game. I know we can do it.”

Season record

So far this season, Mount Si’s record is 6-1-2. They visit Woodinville, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 9.

Against Newport on Thursday, Oct. 2, Mount Si won, 1-0.

Follow Mount Si girls soccer at http://www.mshsgirlssoccer.com.