sports CORRESPONDENT

The Federal Way Eagles survived the ball-possession percentage advantage, and good late second half passing followed by shooting from their rival Decatur in a 1-0 victory at Federal Way Memorial Thursday.

Decatur shot and shot in the second half and could not put the ball past Eagles keeper Kelcey Keyes. It was a good shutout for Keyes, who made some good stops, but the real story is what has been plaguing a talented Gators team for three league games now.

The Eagles upped their record to 2-1 in the South Puget Sound League South Division and the Gators fell to 0-3.

The Eagles have four goals for and four goals against. And the Gators?

"No goals, again," said Gators coach Brandon Frederick when asked what was the first thing that came to his mind after the game. "We have a core offense, six, seven players, that we have been rotating. On paper we should be scoring. We have a lot of players that could be scoring."

But while Decatur did not score, Federal Way did. The Eagles took advantage of a Gator mistake in the back.

"Mental mistake is what that goal was," said Frederick. "We are young in back. It was miscommunication between the keeper and the defender. One called it and the other didn't hear. That's what we had against TJ. They scored on a corner kick. It wasn't an own goal but the ball hit off our player and bounced in front of a TJ player."

So, Rachael Larkin took advantage of the miscue, sending he ball into the net for a 1-0 Eagles lead in the first half's final few minutes. Then the Eagles packed it in.

"We were getting a lot more reinforcements in the middle (after the score)," said the Eagles' Bree Rowe. "Coach changed our formation to mark out more of their players at halftime. And we did a good job of doing that. "

Defense won it for the blue and white.

Really, this game was not about offense but for that score. It was about defense, led by sweeper Caley Dixon for the Eagles.

"She's the heart and soul of the defense," said Rowe, who nearly scored a breakaway goal in the final minutes of the second half but was thwarted wide and settled for a corner kick. "The whole back played well. If they play like they did tonight every game, they will be unstoppable."

Really, besides a late close-in shot, most of the Gators shots were having to be taken from way far away, 18 yards out from the goal. And they consequently were not a threat to score.

Credit the Eagles' defense of Dixon and freshmen Amanda Earlywine and Paige Edmiston, plus junior Ryan Grey. Others like Rowe in the midfield come back on defense as well as distributing the ball offensively to forwards.

"They obviously had more opportunities to score in the game than we did, but we played hard," said Eagles coach Jason Baumgardt. "They are really pressing. They are a good team. They just need to score a goal to get their confidence going."

Decatur controlled the ball probably 70 percent of the game to the Eagles' 30, but the Eagles had a chance or two, too, like Rowe's. And, most importantly, they scored.

"We had a couple chances also," said Rowe, a senior captain for the Eagles. "That's what happens in soccer. It's the team that puts the ball in the goal that wins."