Coeur d'Alene Charter girls make it four in a row in 3A
Photo by JASON DUCHOW PHOTOGRAPHY Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy players celebrate the first goal, by Isabella Lucky, in the state 3A girls soccer championship game against Sugar-Salem on Saturday at Middleton High.
Photo by JASON DUCHOW PHOTOGRAPHY Riley Jo Anderson (3) of Coeur d’Alene Charter maneuvers the ball upfield as Sunny Bennion (20) of Sugar-Salem looks on.
MIDDLETON — The near-misses were a sign.
The barrage was soon to come.
The result was a four-peat.
Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy scored three goals in a 12-minute span midway through the first half, and went on to beat Sugar-Salem 3-0 in the championship game of the state 3A high school girls soccer tournament Saturday at Middleton High.
It was the fourth straight state title for Coeur d’Alene Charter (18-1-0), and the fifth in six years.
“You could just feel it was going to happen,” Charter coach Stacy Smith said of the scoring spree. “We had the pressure, and they were just kind of frantic.”
Sophomore Isabella Lucky’s unassisted goal opened the scoring.
Moments later, junior Sarah Hines scored her sixth goal of the tournament — this one assisted by her freshman sister, Bekah. It was the first time they had played together since one season years ago in parks and rec, and Sarah said playing with her sister again was “definitely a cool experience.”
On the scoring play, Bekah, beat a player with the ball just over the midfield line on the right. Sarah made a run down the middle of the field.
“She pointed and said, ‘Sarah,’” Sarah said. “I knew where she was going with it. I knew there was a gap between the two defenders.”
Sarah ran onto the ball just outside the penalty area, shot and scored.
Moments later, freshman Cadence Wilson scored with an assist from senior Sandy Faulkner.
“What surprised me is how we were able to build our offense (at state),” Smith said. “When you play strong teams, sometimes you play how they want you to play, and we played how we wanted to play.”
Smith said she was surprised how Charter was able to dominate the run of play against Sugar (18-2-1), whom the Panthers beat in the title game for the second straight year.
“We took out a little bit of their condifence in the middle of the field,” she said. “My midfielders defended well and distributed well. The surprise for me was Bekah Hines; she was relentless. She was half the size of most of the midfielders today, and she was all over them.”
“It was incredible to watch,” Faulkner said of Bekah Hines. “Every 50/50 ball she was there; she was able to beat out the other player.”
Charter outscored its opponents 147-5 this season, with 14 shutouts. The Panthers are 72-4-2 over the past four seasons — all under Smith, a former Lake City assistant.
“I think I’m a little bit in awe,” she said. “I knew these were talented girls. Sometimes you wonder if a team is going to get complacent, and they didn’t. My seniors were just as hungry as they were when they were freshmen.”
“It has been a privilege to play for this team,” said Faulkner, a four-year starter in the midfield. “We are humble, and it also gives us an edge over other teams. We don’t expect to win, we just know what we have to do.”
“Even though we do have that background of winning state a lot, we know something unexpected could happen,” added Sarah Hines, a three-year starter at forward. “We have to prepare and fight and earn everything we get.”
Faulkner said Smith is “a huge part of our success.”
“She is just a shining light,” Faulkner said. “She tells us what to do, and gives us the space to go do it.”
Sugar-Salem — Shots on goal: 4. Saves: Emma Siddoway 6.
Coeur d’Alene Charter — Goals: Isabella Lucky 1, Sarah Hines 1, Cadence Wilson 1. Assists: Bekah Hines 1, Sandy Faulkner 1. Shots on goal: 11. Saves: Danica Nowak 4.