Kentridge defeats defending state champion Kentwood 2-1 Tuesday night | Girls soccer

Published 10:23 am Wednesday, October 12, 2011

In the past week Kentridge has beaten both of the teams that played in the girls soccer 4A state championship a year ago, including a 2-1 victory Tuesday night over Kentwood.

“Kentridge outplayed us,” wrote Kentwood coach Aaron Radford in an email interview Wednesday morning. “Their defense was organized. They were the smarter team.”

Kentridge coach Sherri Rolfs wrote in an email the biggest keys to victory were “speed, intensity and a belief that they can compete.”

“We are tenacious and when we work together we can overwhelm opponents,” Rolfs wrote. “Kentwood is very organized, so we tried to put so much pressure on them they could not get organized.”

M’Kenna Hayes sent Emily Hannah the ball for the Chargers first score of the game at the 60 minute mark.

Mykala Benjamin evened things up off a pass from Laura Moore at the 75 minute mark.

Just two minutes later, though, Lexi Klinkenburg took a ball from Hunter Mar to score the winning goal for Kentridge.

“We made about four huge mistakes and they scored on two of those,” Radford wrote. “Both of their goals came from a player getting behind our defense and going one on one with our goal keeper.”

After a 0-0 tie in its third annual Kicks for the Cure game Saturday with Kentlake, Kentwood dropped to 9-1-1, with 28 points but hangs on to first place in the South Puget Sound League North Division.

For Kentridge, the win put it in second place at 7-2-2 with Tahoma right behind at 7-2-1 and Kentlake in fourth place at 6-3-2 after beating Kent-Meridian Tuesday night.

“I hope the girls take away the lesson that they when they bring their style to the field they can set the pace of the game and keep the opponent on their heels,” Rolfs wrote. “It will be hard to bring that level of intensity to every game left this year, but I am trusting that last night was a positive lesson for them. We beat Tahoma last week, too, but then had a poor performance on the heels of that big win, so we need to remember that lesson, too.”