Silverdale's Christian Echols (1) defends against Boyd Buchanan's Kate Dickert (14) in the Lady Seahawks' 2-0 region win over the Lady Bucs.
photo by Joseph Dycus
It was a scene repeated countless times on Thursday night: a speedy Boyd Buchanan forward would streak down their left sideline and attempt to jumpstart their attack. And every time, Silverdale’s senior defender Christian Echols would shut this action down with a great tackle or a timely clearance that sent the Buccaneers in reverse.
Almost a year to the day, Boyd Buchanan had beaten Silverdale 4-3 to claim the region championship.
The Seahawks ensured there would be no back-to-back championships for their rivals, winning 2-0 in front of a disappointed Boyd Buchanan crowd.
“It feels pretty great,” Echols said. “It’s always a tough game against our rivals, and I think we worked really hard to be able to win it this year.”
Boyd Buchanan actually spent the first 10 minutes or so of the game dominating possession. But they rarely were able to actually threaten the Silverdale defense, and the Buccaneers spent much of the first half firing long-range shots that were nowhere close to going in. The Seahawks got their first crack at goal on a penalty kick, but the visitors missed and it remained a scoreless draw for a few more minutes.
That was until the 14th minute, when the Seahawks got the ball into the box and a mad scramble for possession ensued. After what seemed to be an interminable amount of time, freshman Ella Kate Sullivan rammed into the fray.
She threw her body at the ball and sent it past the Boyd keeper for the Seahawks’ first goal of the match. The visiting Seahawk fans didn’t have to wait much longer to see an encore. Sophomore Abigail Witten drove into the penalty box and drew a foul, setting herself up for redemption.
On the first try a few minutes earlier, Buccaneer goalkeeper Kaitlyn Pope had made a sensational diving stop to her right, thwarting Witten’s shot. Now given another chance to convert the penalty, Witten took a similar shot into the low left corner. This time, it went in and Silverdale was up 2-0.
“It’s been tough sledding on this field, since we don’t have a turf field and we don’t get to play on this surface often,” coach Scott Chapman said. “It does make a difference, so it’s been tough to win here.”
Echols was lockdown for the Seahawks, blanking her side of the field despite being constantly challenged by gifted attackers such as Abigail Aman and Kate Dickert. As long as she was patrolling the right wing, any Boyd Buchanan attack was almost surely going to fail. In the second half, the Buccaneers basically gave her the 2013 Richard Sherman treatment and just stopped going to her area.
“It really is a team sport,” Echols said. “I work my butt off, but I think we shut down their team as a whole unit.”
Far from a one-woman show on the backline, her teammates Elle Lam and Maggie Placer also held firm in their slots along the back three. During the 68th minute, a Buccaneer and Seahawk collided, both players went down and words were exchanged between the opposing coaches. However, cooler heads soon prevailed and the rest of the game went on without incident.
“Everyone is fighting and working hard and wants it, and the other team wanted it as much as we did,” coach Chapman said. “I think past teams would’ve shut down after that, but we didn’t.”
The Buccaneers took a few more tries at mounting a comeback, but it seemed as if every time they had a runner break free, a group of Seahawks would converge on them and snuff out the threat. After 80 minutes, the Seahawks raised their trophy as the 2021 D-II Eastern Region champs.
“It’s all about playing for each other, and our theme this year was ‘broken vessels,’” coach Chapman said. “We’re busted up and broken vessels God can work through. Everyone bought into that idea, so that created a great and unified team.”
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