HS Girls Soccer: Centralia Pressure Wears Down Rochester

10/11/22

Centralia 3, Rochester 0

(Centralia, WA) As the Evergreen 2A Conference started the second round of league matchups, both the Rochester Warriors and Centralia Tigers were in need of a good run to climb up into the 4th spot to get a crossover match with the GSHL 2A for the final spot in the District tournament. That made Tuesday’s showdown extremely important but Rochester came in beat up and shorthanded. The Tigers would utilize their depth on their bench and turned up the aggression to dominate time of possession in route to a 3-0 victory over the Warriors.

Rochester was getting swarmed by Centralia in the early going. The Warriors struggled to possess the ball but relied on their defense and goalkeeping to try to wear down Centralia. While the Tigers peppered shots on goal, junior goalie Grace Weddle did a fantastic job keeping Centralia off the board. Weddle had six saves in the first half and not many of them came easily.

In about the 30th minute, Weddle would add on to her phenomenal half with another save as she pushed a shot wide resulting in a Centralia corner kick. Olivia Gruginski took the corner and Jaqui Maldonado used her height advantage to out jump everyone else and head the ball in in the 31st minute to put the Tigers out in front 1-0.

Liliana Babka normally starts in goal for Centralia, but head coach Noel Vasquez decided to let her play up for this match and started Braylee Blankenship in goal in her varsity debut. Babka made the most of her opportunity and after narrowly missing a goal in the first half, cashed in in the 43rd minute to add to the Centralia lead 2-0.

Centralia came out of halftime playing with the same aggression, but Rochester started using their three substitutes more to try to keep players fresh. Emily Beasley helped Rochester put together some attacks in the second half but they couldn’t break through.

Aggression was the key word of the match for Centralia. They did a great job intercepting passes to earn extra possessions in their attacking third. Izabella Hernandez would do just that in the 67th minute when she intercepted a goal kick and then found the back of the net to make it 3-0 Centralia. That would be the final as the Tigers used defense for the rest of the match and Blankenship earned a clean sheet in her debut.

Our MVP of the match was Izabella Hernandez for Centralia. Hernandez was all over the field and led the aggressive playstyle taking away passes all throughout the 80-minute match. She would also be rewarded with a goal for her efforts in the victory.

Centralia moves to 4-8 with the win and 3-5 in league play. The Tigers will continue their second half charge on Thursday when they travel to take on Shelton. Rochester drops to 1-11 on the year and 0-8 in league play. The Warriors will have some time to try to heal up before hosting Aberdeen on Tuesday.

Below you can watch our highlights and postgame show. Don’t forget if you want to watch the entire game you can watch it in the “On Demand” section on the NFHS Network.