Bombers Bring Out the Brooms on the Braves - By Brayden Pratt
On Tuesday night, September 26th, the Lady Bombers traveled to Lampson Field to battle the Kamiakin Braves. The Bombers showed up to this game with a remarkable record of 7-1, outscoring their opponents by 25 goals to start the season. The Braves, however, are in the midst of a down year, with a record of only 5-3, but their girls are fired up, ready for a turnaround here at the mid-season point. The last meeting between the Lady Bombers and Lady Braves ended in Richland's 3-1 victory.
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| Photo: Metcalf Media (@metcalfmedia_) |
Tuesday's game allowed the Lady Bombers to add another W into the win column with a 1-0 win over the Braves. This gave the Bombers their first season sweep of the year against a talented Braves team that is considered a rival and a recent powerhouse for girls' soccer in the MCC. The Bombers also climbed into the top 10 according to the WIAA, jumping up six spots and ranking them as the 7th best team in the 4A classification. The goal today was scored by Payton Anderson in the 12th minute of the game on a great assist by Kylee Kukes, who ran down a ball deep in Kamiakin territory and crossed into Payton, who drilled it from outside the box. In addition, Bella Bunnage, although never making contact with the ball, played a part by holding her defender off like a decoy. In speaking with the Eastern Washington University soccer commit after the game, Bunnage said, “Actually, just last night, the BYU soccer team did something, and I said to myself “I’m going to try it.” It’s called a dummy…and so I “dummied” it to Payton.” Great leadership like this and a “team first” mindset have led the Bombers to great success this season.
Both teams showed phenomenal defense as this game ended in a 1-0 final score. This speaks more about the defense of both teams than it does about a lack of offense. On the Braves side, you could see them meshing really well together and playing as a team. In a pregame interview with senior defender and captain Adelyn Mitchel, Mitchel said, “We’re continuing to learn throughout our season and are getting better at every practice and every game”. You could definitely see that tonight, as they held this high-powered Bomber Offense to only one early goal. This is a big success compared to the three they gave up in the season opener to the short-handed lady Bombers.
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| Photo: Metcalf Media (@metcalfmedia_) |
A big contributor to tonight's win has to be the Richland senior goalkeeper, Alyssa Marsh. This clean sheet for Alyssa makes it 5 in just 9 games on the season. It is phenomenal for a high school keeper to have this much success in the net. Alyssa not only made saves on single shots but also stopped multiple Kamiakin opportunities where it was just her and the attacker. As a goalkeeper, knowing you are the last line of defense is a scary feeling to have all of that pressure. But Alyssa kept her cool and thrived under the pressure, with 3 crucial saves in a span of 8 minutes. The first was in the 22nd minute, followed by another one in the 28th minute. Her final great save of the half came in the 29th minute. But it was more of the same in the 2nd half as Alyssa dominated the box, going out to get balls, booting them away from the net, and stopping multiple great attacks by the Braves.
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| Photo: Metcalf Media (@metcalfmedia_) |
Another key for this game was the referees, who, on multiple occasions, were confused and, unfortunately, affected both teams. The first Bomber goal was discussed for almost 2 minutes on whether it should count. Another Bomber goal was called back due to an offsides. The missed foul calls on both sides and the plays that were mistakenly called fouls had the fans in attendance yelling and letting these referees know they were unhappy.
The Bombers look to keep their momentum going forward as they head into a game against their little sister to the north in a home game on Thursday, September 28th. They look to keep their 5-game-winning streak rolling towards the end of their 2023 campaign.
