LYNDEN - Second-year starter Mikki Jansma figured it would be "no big deal" if she never scored for Lynden Christian's girls' soccer team.
But the junior midfielder's first goal in high school turned out to be a big deal indeed - and a moment she won't forget.
With the Northwest Conference's top Class 1A playoff seed on the line, Jansma's goal in heavy traffic off a corner kick by Demi Luna in the 14th minute got the Lyncs going and they responded with a 6-2 victory over Class 1A rival Meridian to end the regular season on Monday, Oct. 24.
LC (10-4-2 overall, 7-4-2 NWC) will open sub-district play at home against Friday Harbor on Wednesday, Oct. 26, at either 3:30 or 4 p.m. Meridian (8-8, 6-7) will play at Coupeville the same day.
Both the Lyncs and Trojans need to win one of two sub-district games to advance to the tri-district tournament, LC coach Brent De Ruyter said. A victory Wednesday would guarantee a tri-district berth, he said.
"I was always hoping for a goal," Jansma, said of her dreams of scoring at long last, "but I figured it would be no big deal if I ever got one, as long as we won and we played well. But this was really exciting. I was thinking (when she saw her shot), 'Wow, the ball actually went in for once.' "
NWC scoring leader Coryn Bajema tallied the second, fifth and sixth goals, giving her 30 for the season and 50 over a two-season span. But an equally intriguing aspect was how well Meridian's young team competed and how well LC's other players responded.
Seven minutes into the second half, Meridian sophomore Taylor Lunde cut LC's lead to 3-2 as she and Randi Donahue -- the only senior in the Trojans' lineup against the Lyncs - combined for their second goal of the wild game. Lunde, who came in as the league's No. 4 scorer with 31 points, now has 14 goals and 35 points, and fourth-year regular Donahue has 20 points via seven goals and six assists.
"They're unbelievable," De Ruyter said of the young Trojans. "They are really going to be a force."
LC, however, has seven starting seniors and already very much a force, as the Lyncs showed when Bajema powered home a 30-yarder unassisted in the 20th minute. She then used her powerful 5-foot-11 frame on a long through ball and Jessa Vanderpol scrambled to score her fifth goal for a 3-0 lead in the 27th minute.
After Lunde threw a major scare into the Lyncs in the 35th and 47th minutes, Bajema assisted Luna to give LC a 4-2 advantage in the 50th minute. The Lyncs removed all doubt when Vanderpol assisted Bajema in the 64th minute and Bajema scored on her own rebound in the 75th minute.
"All our girls just played so hard," Meridian coach Andrea Ames said. "They played their hearts out. I'm very proud of them. LC was exactly what we expected to see, but we just couldn't execute often enough."
Meridian made it a challenging day for LC goalkeeper Louisa Brisbane, who faced 13 shots and made six saves. Trojans keeper Abbi Rautenberg never backed down while facing 20 shots and collecting six saves.
Brisbane said she was especially proud of how her backline defenders, Joci Buys, Meagan Van Berkum and sophomore Karis Van Diest, constantly communicated well and made Brisbane's job easier.
"Meridian's really good (for such a young team)," Brisbane said. "I was nervous, because Meridian had the advantage of coming in with nothing to lose. But once the adrenaline kicked in, the butterflies went away. This means a lot for our (nine) seniors, because we're trying to get to state for the first time in our girls' program's history."
De Ruyter was most impressed with his team's "sense of urgency."
"We've been getting off to slow starts in our past few games, so our quick starts in both halves were very big for us," he said.
LC also received steady contributions from starting midfielders Livi Vander Griend, Jenna Vanderpol, Courtney Hollander and Shelby Brown, contributing much to those quick starts.
LYNDEN CHRISTIAN 6, MERIDIAN 2
Scoring-- Goal: Mikki Jansma (LC); assist: Demi Luna (LC); time: 14; Goal: Coryn Bajema (LC); time: 20; Goal: Jessa Vanderpol; assist: Bajema; time: 27; Goal: Taylor Lunde (M); assist: Randi Donahue; time: 35; Goal: Lunde (M); assist: Donahue; time: 47; Goal: Luna (LC); assist: Bajema; time: 50; Goal: Bajema (LC); assist: Vanderpol; time: 64; Goal: Bajema (LC), time: 75. Shots: Meridian 14, LC 20. Goalkeepers (saves): Meridian: Abbi Rautenberg (6); LC: Louisa Brisbane (6).
