By Ed Shepherd

SPORTS CORRESPONDENT
What a game, and it all boiled down to penalty kicks -- a shootout.
Highline's Flor Aquino and Makenna Hadaller embraced the moment well, leading their Pirates team to a 3-2 victory that took until the ninth kicker to decide things in a West Central District 3 2A loser-out soccer playoff against host Franklin Pierce Saturday, Nov. 8.
"Great running play. We came back from behind twice, with tenacity," said Jeb Binns, Pirates head coach, afterward.

And the shootout? What about watching Aquino shoot that ninth shot in for the win to state?
"No, I didn't watch," said Binns. "I think, the trick was not watching the last one."
And then Binns let out a "Whooooo!"

Aquino was nervous, wasn't she, taking that last kick?
"Excited," said Aquino. "I took the last penalty kick to get us to state."
And Hadaller, wow, what a job, what a situation she was in, being the Pirates' goalkeeper in the shootout -- never an enviable spot to be in with likely being hero or goat after the shootout winner is decided. In a few words, it's "pressure, pressure, pressure" for a goalie in that spot. So, it was hard for the sophomore, Hadaller, wasn't it?

"Love it," said Hadaller.
That kind of situation?
"You just got to believe in your team, and yourself," said Hadaller.
That said, Hadaller made some incredible saves in the shootout that came after the first shooter made it for the Cardinals but missed for the Pirates. That shooter that missed, for the Pirates, was Angelina Ottolina, who had made a penalty kick to tie the game, 1-1, for the Pirates late in the first half of regulation play.

Goalies don't like to get scored on that way, and they do take mental notes when players, like Ottolina, make a goal on them. And, of course, for any PK, it's still a guessing game whenever a shooter takes one on a keeper. Ottolina shot the ball the same way, the same nice location, into the corner, as she did in regulation. And the Cardinal keeper saved it. And there's a pretty good reason why that happened.
"She knew my spot, where I kicked it," said Ottolina.

And so, that said, that miss from the first Pirates kicker, put more pressue on Hadaller than before, as the Pirates were then down 1-0 after the first kickers' shots were done.
But Hadaller just kept smiling after the first shooters were through, and more pressure was on her than the Cardinal keeper at that time.

So the second shooter for the Cardinals shot and Hadaller made a full-out, diving save and then the Pirates' Mary Loy made her shot so it was tied, 1-1, in the shootout. Jordan Drugge, a senior, scored as the third kicker, as did the Cardinals' kicker, so it was tied, 2-2.
Then the Pirates' fourth kicker missed while the Cardinals' made it, so it was 3-2 Cardinals with only one shooter to go for each team. Now, that's pressure! And it's mostly on Hadaller, as well as the Pirates' fifth kicker.

And the Cardinal fifth shooter's kick was saved by Hadaller, instinctively, like a cat, diving to her left, knocking the ball away. Then the Pirates' fifth kicker, Corissa Stoneback, needed to make her kick or the Pirates' season was through. Stoneback nailed it, upper vee, right corner, tying things, 3-3.
That sent the PK do-or-die contest to extra kickers, and, the sixth Cardinal kicker scored so freshman Britney Kinney needed to score as her team's sixth kicker.
And Kinney pocketed it into the far post, so it was 4-4.

Hadaller knew what was going on, her math skills were well at work as the next Cardinal kicker missed the goal, meaning the Pirates' seventh kicker only needed to knock the ball into the net for the win.
Hadaller shouted out to that kicker, "You got this. You got this."
But the seventh kicker for the Pirates missed. So, to the eighth PK kickers, and the Cardinal kicker missed and the Pirates' Karen Orellana could have won it with a make, but her boot of the ball, a rocket shot to the right upper vee, clanged off the crossbar.

So to the ninth kickers.
And the Cardinal kicker shot a good shot to the left, and Hadaller, though, did a great, elongated dive as she stretched out, headed with her arms to knock the ball away from the far post. Only the ball didn't get kicked perfectly to the far post, so Hadaller made a great adjustment and knocked the ball with her hands brought in. However, the ball was not able to be knocked away from the goal, and, in fact, it ricocheted off Hadaller's hands, just a bit, to the right, and, was bouncing, looking like it was going to go over the goal line.

"I honestly don't know if it was going in," said Hadaller. "I had to stop it. I had to get the rebound."
Hadaller dove back the other way and reached a hand out pretty much on the goal line to corral the ball.
Then it was Aquino's turn. She sent her team into a frenzy with her score, all her team running from midfield and piling on top of her.
Hadaller was around that vicinity, too.
So, PKs? Was Binns prepared for that to happen?

"We went through them in practice, and got an order," said Binns.
The Pirates and Cardinals played tough in this game, with even action through the first 40 minutes. There was a lot of good midfield play from the Cardinals and the Pirates, led by their center midfielder, Loy. And the back line for the Pirates, led by captains Jenna Roberts and Jackie Madsen, was busy and doing a good job, both booting the ball away and keeping it from the talented Cardinal forwards, especially Molly Mortensen. But the Cardinals did score, finally, after a whistle blown by the ref for a foul, and, Malia Adams gave her team a goal off a free kick, with eight minutes left in the first half, at the 32nd mark. So it was 1-0 Cardinals.

The Pirates' mentality proved staunch, like the game's twice-down, comeback against Port Angeles two days earlier, a 3-2 win, as they did the same thing in this game, with the tenacious kind of play that Binns aforementioned, getting a goal just five minutes after the Cardinals' score.

A Cardinal foul inside the penalty box, at the 37th minute, made for a Ottolina penalty shot that tied the game, 1-1, on a nice, perfectly placed ball into the corner.

But again, right after halftime, just three minutes into it at the 43rd minute mark, the Pirates found themselves in familiar territory, down a goal in a game. On the foe's score, one of the Cardinals' speedy forwards, Mortensen, got a breakaway at the 40-yard line and sprinted into the 18-yard box. She then booted the ball to the right of Hadaller, grazing her, going past her, as, Hadaller went to her knees to the ground to try and cut off the angle of the shot. So it was 2-1 Cardinals.

More comeback work to do for the Pirates in this game, but past performance said they were up to the task. And the many fans who made the drive to east Tacoma were supporting them throughout the game excellently, cheering, "Let's go, Pirates."

And 18 minutes into the second half, at the 58th minute point of the match, Loy took a long pass from Kinney that was controlled just inside the top of the 18-yard box circle and Loy pivoted with the ball, dribbling. Then she passed the ball between two Cardinal defenders, the last line of defense for the foe, to forward, Miriam Silva, all alone. She hit the ball once, or, twice, forward, dribbling, on the right side, just outside the penalty kick area's 12 yard box, and scored it far post.

So a good goal, a needed goal, for the Pirates, and Binns stated the obvious of that one after the game.
"It was pretty darn important," said Binns.
That score by Silva tied the game, 2-2.

Then, with just over half of the 40-minute game to play, a couple minutes later, after that score, Aquino ran onto a long ball from sweeper Madsen, dribbling forward, already past the Cardinal sweeper, and was about to cut with the ball at the 18-yard box. She accidentally stepped on the ball and flew to the ground, with the ball staying in place on the field on the play.
"I thought I was going to get that goal," said Aquino.

So nothing doing there. And the game played out competitively for the remainder of regulation, tied up, with the two five sudden-death overtimes, and shootout looming.