sports CORRESPONDENT

The Foster Bulldogs played even against Seattle Christian the first 15 minutes before the Warriors leveled their Nisqually League foe, 7-0, at Warriors Field Thursday.

The Warriors improved to 3-1 in league while the Bulldogs dropped to 0-3.

"We are a young team," said Bulldogs coach Heather Delez. "We have only three upper classmen."

And only one of those Bulldog upper classmen is a senior. The other two are juniors.

"These are the building years," she said. "Within 2-3 years, we will be a whole different team I hope."

Deleza does not need to hope that she would hear good things from Warriors co-coaches Melissa Bennett and Kelee Wall.

"They played with us pretty good the first 15 minutes," said Bennett of Deleza's team.

Bennett, by the way, is the all-time leading scorer for SCS who went on to play for the University of Washington. Wall was also a good player on the Warriors team that set marks that stand to this day in the nation's high school record books. Both were on a Warriors team from the early to late 1990s that was not beaten in a soccer game and that set the national high school winning streak record under longtime, just-retired coach Lisa Peterson.

This is the first year for both Wall and Bennett.

"We told Lisa that when you retire we really want to take over," said Wall, herself a real workhorse and talkative forward in her Warriors time that exemplified the kind of players needed for that kind of success in the 1990s.

Wall and Bennett were chosen to take over and try to keep the success going, which included a very close loss in the 1A state championship last fall in Peterson's final season.

This game for the Warriors was close at first. The Bulldogs held their own, getting off a couple shots while the Warriors had maybe a couple more in that time. For the Bulldogs, Michelle Moore, Rachel Blanchet and others, were all doing a good job winning 50-50 balls and Warriors players like their captain, Katie Haynes, was distributing the ball well for quick shots for Noelle Simpson in the first 15 minutes.

Then the Warriors struck. With 25:50 left in the first half, Haynes dribbled the ball down the left wing. She turned inward and pushed the ball a little far, as she then went in for a 50-50 ball with a Foster defender and came out with the ball going into the six-yard box. Unselfishly, she passed it back to the penalty kick area. There, it was senior Alyssa Harney smashing it by a diving Jessica Hollingsworth. Hollingsworth did have a couple good saves of the ball skipping on the rain-soaked grass in the first half and made a diving save. But that all changed in the 15th minute or so as the Warriors scored that first goal and then a second one a scant four minutes later when Haynes took a direct free kick and chipped it over the defense to Hollingsworth,who almost handled it. The ball slipped out of her hands to the ground and Elissa Kane was there to rebound it netward for a 2-0 lead.

Next was a goal a minute later as Tianna Homad kicked the ball down the right side to the corner and crossed it into the net's far-post upper vee. The fourth goal, which came less than two minutes later at the 18:15 mark, was when Haynes did a leg-over-the-ball fake going right and pivoted left and passed. On the receiving end was Harney, who hammered it home near-post from about 10 yards out about to make it 4-0.

Halftime came and went as the rain stayed around and made it difficult for the players to control the ball cleanly. But the Warriors scored out of the gate on another good Kane shot in the first five minutes. And then with 15 minutes left in the game, Haynes made another score, crossing a corner area shot on the right side over Hollingsworth's outstretched hands into the far post upper V. The last goal was by freshman Sarah Tripoli, who scored inside the six-yard box. The final shot totals were 24 for the Warriors and four for the Bulldogs.

"We have a really young team," said senior captain Haynes. "We lost five seniors but that is OK. We have some good new freshmen. We have two new coaches. I really like them. They are kind of young and understand us. They really love the game and they know what they are doing."

That's something Foster coach Deleza wants her girls to know.

"Everyone is doing the same thing out there, playing soccer," said Deleza. "Doesn't matter how old you are, if you are a freshman or sophomore. A lot are just coming together as a team. They are making that jump between understanding each other, the lower and upper classmen."

The Warriors coaches think this season has been one of understanding for them.

"It's been a little overwhelming at times," said Bennett. "But we have had fun. We have jumped in and played with them in practices."

"It is fun to step in and coach doing what we used to do," said Wall.

The Warriors opened the season with a loss to Archbishop Murphy, a traditional power like the Warriors in girls soccer. The Warriors led in that game.

"We had a lead and they got us in the second half," said Wall.

"It was our first game of the season," said Bennett. "We scored first and were not ready for a full 80 minutes. We got tired."

Then the Warriors beat Cashmere, 3-2, before topping North Mason, 5-2, and then losing to Eatonville, 3-2, before this game.

The Warriors play Thursday against visiting Steilacoom at 4 p.m. at Warriors Field.