An improving The Dalles girls soccer team seeks its first win in a nonleague contest at home Thursday at 4:30 p.m. against the Hillsboro Spartans (0-0-1).
The Riverhawks (0-1-1) had a good start in their opening game of the season, a 1-1 tie against the Class 3A Riverside Pirates (1-1-1) Aug. 30 at the Wahtonka soccer field. The Dalles, guided by Coach Colby Tonn, was unable to keep the momentum from the opener and lost 6-0 to Scappoose (2-0-1) Sept. 7 at Otto Petersen Elementary School in Scappoose.
“We definitely were showing signs of progress and we were creating scoring chances and getting some good secondary shots, too, against Scappoose,” said Tonn. “Kendall Webber had a great pass into the middle to Jazmine DeLaCruz, who eluded defenders perfectly and she had a good opportunity to score in the first half.”
The highly regarded Indians, No. 4 in the OSAA Class 5A rankings, utilized a potent offensive attack and scored in the seventh minute for a 1-0 advantage. “Scappoose is always a tough team, and they have players who can really strike the ball hard,” said Tonn. “We’ve talked about reducing the time that our opponents have with the ball and that’s something that we’ll be working on going forward. We’re going to face another tough team again when we play Hillsboro on Thursday.”
The Dalles nearly knotted its game against Scappoose, as the quartet of Maisie Bandel-Ramirez, Lyris Voodre-Grover, Kendall Webber and Amyrah Hill each had good first-half scoring opportunities, but they weren’t able to capitalize on them. The Hawks had a total of five shots on goal. Sophomore goalkeeper Katlyne Sorensen had eight saves.
“I had a couple of good shots and they were good scoring opportunities, but I’m really disappointed that we weren’t able to get a goal,” said Webber, a senior wing. “We tried our best, but they (Indians) are a very good team. Hopefully, we’ll come back and play a little better and have a chance to win when we play our next game at home.”
Voodre-Grover, a junior wing, fired a solid shot in the 17th minute that nearly went in but it just missed and bounced off the goalpost. “I had some good scoring opportunities in the game and I was hoping that one of my shots would go in,” said Voodre-Grover, who had an assist in the season opener game versus Riverside. “Some games don’t always go the way you’re hoping they would, but that’s just a part of sports. I think this will definitely help make our team stronger and it will help prepare us for the next game. We’ll just have to work on some things that we struggled with. Even though we lost, we tried our best and we played with a good energy level.”
Hill, a sophomore forward, had a good shot in the 28th minute that was saved by Indian junior goalkeeper Gabby Hanke.
“I was excited before the game and I had hoped that we would do well, but they (Indians) are a really good team,” said Hill, who scored the game-tying goal against Riverside in the season opener. “I had two shots and I was hoping to score a goal. I feel like I could’ve played better though. I was happy to score a goal in our first game against Riverside and I’m hoping to score a few more this season too.”
Scappoose scored in the 36th minute to take a 2-0 halftime lead. The Indians then continued their impressive offensive attack by scoring four second-half goals to get the victory.
The Hawks head back out on the road Sept. 21 with a 7 p.m. contest against the Putnam Kingsmen (0-0-1) in Milwaukie.
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