HS Girls Soccer: Napavine Hangs on in Wild Finish with Okanogan

11/12/25

(Tumwater, WA) State playoffs have arrived and Tumwater District Stadium was the site of an opening round match in the 1B/2B girls soccer tournament on Wednesday night. Two teams very familiar with one another would meet as the #10 Okanogan Bulldogs battles the #7 Napavine Tigers. The two teams met early in the season when Napavine earned a 3-0 win but they also met in the opening round of last year’s state tournament which was also won by the Tigers 2-1. This time around, Okanogan would be looking for a little bit of revenge as their young team looked to show how much they have grown since the start of the season.

Napavine 2, Okanogan 1

Napavine came out dominant early on in the match. The Tigers were firing shots on 8th grader Lilly Mullen who did a great job keeping the Tigers off the board in the opening minutes. Hannah Fay and Hayden Kaut led the offensive charge early for Napavine but a slow progression up the field that started with goalie Taylen Evander ended up getting the Tigers on the board. Kaut would find some space in the 5th minute and fired a shot by Mullen to give Napavine an early 1-0 lead.

After those early minutes, Okanogan began to work into a groove and really settled down. The Bulldogs began to put their offense together as Claire Peterson, Olivia Morrison, and Emmerson Goetz strung together some attacks against the Napavine backline. Clara Fay was phenomenal in her sweeper role but Taylen Evander got a handful of tough stops on the looks that did get through. Olivia Morrison came very close to finding an equalizer but her shot was pulled just wide of the post so we went to halftime with Napavine leading 1-0.

Okanogan continued to play with confidence as the momentum carried over into the second half. Addi Brown led a couple of strong attacks on the right side for the Bulldogs while Karla Lucas kept the ball on the Bulldogs attacking half of the field. Nicholle Valentine, Maya Kunkel, and Maddie Dickinson all played very well together as the Napavine defense communicated almost perfectly the entire match. The Tigers couldn’t open up their lead however as the match entered the final minutes.

All sorts of chaos ensued in the final handful of minutes in this one. It started in the 77th minute when Okanogan put some pressure on the Tiger defense with the match getting very late. With time winding down, Olivia Morrison continued her excellent season as just an 8th grader by finding a path to the back of the net and powering in a shot to tie the match up at 1-1 very late.

It looked like we were headed to OT but Napavine did have a nice look late. A shot from Hayden Kaut could go off the post and rolled to the corner. With almost everyone watching the ball and expecting it to roll out of play, sophomore Briley Fay sprinted over to the ball and sent it out off of a Bulldog defender to earn Napavine a corner kick. Hannah Fay took the corner and it deflected off of a Tiger right to the foot of Jenna Gallagher. The sophomore tapped it in and in the 79th minute, Napavine responded immediately to go back in front. From there, the Tiger defense held through stoppage time and Napavine defeated Okanogan 2-1 to advance to the state quarterfinals.

Our Thorbeckes MVP of the match went to Briley Fay for Napavine. She played well the entire match but here hustle and heads-up play to earn Napavine a corner in the final minutes that ultimately gave them the game-winning goal was the difference in the entire match. Without that play, this one likely goes to OT where Okanogan very well could have earned the win and sent the Tigers home instead.

Napavine continues their season with a record of 13-4-2 and will now move on to the quarterfinals. The Tigers will take on the #2 seeded Cle Elum-Roslyn Warriors on Saturday at a time and location to be determined. Okanogan has their season come to an end with a record of 13-8 but with a ton of very young talent, the Bulldogs are just entering what could be a special era of girls soccer for their program.

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Link to Bracket