The Trout Lake girls soccer team’s hopes of a berth in the Class 3A/2A/1A Oregon state playoffs ride on the results of its remaining two district matches — and a few other possible scenarios.
The Mustangs (6-3 overall, 1-2 Special District 1) have matches remaining against De La Salle North Catholic (0-7, 0-2) in Portland (Oct. 19) and Oct. 25 at home against second-ranked Oregon Episcopal School (6-2, 3-0).
Trout Lake is fourth in the six-team District 1, and just as important, No. 15 in the OSAA’s rankings. The top three finishing District 1 teams (Riverdale is in third place) receive automatic berths in the state playoffs. Two other at-large teams among Oregon’s 3A/2A/1A schools also qualify for the state playoffs. If the season ended this week, Trout Lake would not finish in an automatic qualifying spot from District 1, but the Mustangs are among the contenders for the state’s two at-large berths.
Also in the running, as of Sunday, are ninth-ranked Central Linn and 10th-ranked Yamhill-Carlton. Neither team has clinched an automatic playoff berth based on district play. Yamhill-Carlton still has four district matches remaining, three of them against teams ahead of it in the District 2 standings. Central Linn had three district matches remaining, two against teams ahead of it in the District 3 standings.
“We’re going to take care of business,” Trout Lake Coach Sean Painter said Sunday night. “We have De La Salle up next.” (Result of that match came after the printed edition deadline.)
Trout Lake remained in contention for a state berth with a 3-2 win, Oct. 12, against Westside Christian. It was a redemption win for the Mustangs, who had lost 3-1 to Westside in a non-league road game Sept. 14. Trout Lake lost its second match last week, 5-0, to top-ranked Catlin Gabel.
The Mustangs used a second-half goal by senior Wynsome Painter to finally pull ahead of Westside for good. Trout Lake held 1-0 and 2-1 leads in the match.
“That was an exciting match. The girls played with confidence. Wynsome scored from the 25 after a foul,” Coach Painter said of his daughter. “She put the ball down quickly and was able to get them while they were backing up.
“It’s almost like a quick pitch (in baseball). You don’t give the other team time to set their wall completely. In this case, she hit it just right. It was a good win.”
Trout Lake was simply overmatched in the loss to Catlin Gabel. Painter called the top-ranked Eagles (8-2 overall), “very skilled and very creative. They will probably most likely be in the finals.”
Yet, the match was within reach for Trout Lake at halftime. “It was fun to play them. It was 2-0 at halftime and we were in the game,” Painter said. “We had chances to score.
“Catlin Gabel is everything that you hear about. They are pretty solid all the way across their lineup.”
Catlin had 32 shots on goal during the match.
Painter said a perfect finish for his team would be a berth in the state playoffs — in the first season ever for the only all-girls soccer team in school history. “It would be awesome. We have De La Salle first and we need to take care of that first and then we’ll finish strong against OES.” Oregon Episcopal has split matches this season with Catlin.w
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