Sports - Sports News

POSTED: Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009

PREP GIRLS' SOCCER: LC edges Friday Harbor, continues on to Class 1A Tri-district Tournament

The Lynden Christian girls' soccer team knew its third-place Class 1A Northwest District Tournament matchup against Friday Harbor on Saturday, Oct. 31 at Oak Harbor would be a physical battle. The Lyncs' last game against Friday Harbor was a high-scoring 5-4 narrow victory in September.

However, Lynden Christian and Friday Harbor were able to keep the score low this time through strong defensive efforts by both backfields. After a scoreless first half, Lynden Christian's April Mulder capitalized off a cross from Demi Luna, sending in the game-winning goal in the 61st minute, and pushing the Lyncs through to the Class 1A tri-district tournament next week with the 1-0 victory.

With the win, Friday Harbor is eliminated from tournament play and Lynden Christian will play at Bush in a first-round game at 4 p.m. on Nov. 4 at Starfire Stadium in Tukwilla.

"Friday Harbor made everything difficult for us today," Lynden Christian coach Brent DeRuyter said in a phone interview. "It was very high energy and very physical. We definitely had our work cut out for us all 80 minutes of play."

Lynden Christian suffered a potentially game-changing event around the 60th minute, when standout forward Coryn Bajema collided with Friday Harbor goalkeeper Hannah Snow. Bajema, the Northwest Conference's leading goal-scorer with 17 goals on the season, rolled her ankle and sat out the rest of the game. DeRuyter said Bajema should recover for Wednesday's match.

"We had to play without Coryn for the rest of the game, so it was a good team effort since she's our big play maker," DeRuyter said. "It was huge to go half of a half without her and still score our goal during that time."

DeRuyter said his squad is looking forward to next week's game against Bush, but with some reservation.

"The nice thing is that we played them in the same game last year. The not so nice thing is that Bush won," DeRuyter said. "We need to get over the mental block of playing the same team, but hopefully the fact that we're playing them will be motivation enough."

LYNDEN CHRISTIAN 1, FRIDAY HARBOR 0

Scoring: Goal: April Mulder (Lynden Christian), assist: Demi Luna, time: 61:00. Shots on goal: Lynden Christian 5; Friday Harbor 3. Goalies (saves): Lynden Christian: Louisa Brisbane (3); Friday Harbor: Hannah Snow (4).