High school soccer: South boys, girls rally to advance in playoffs

Both South Eugene’s boys and girls teams trailed at the half in their respective playoff matchups this week.

The Axe were the higher seed in both, playing at home and confident coming in. But they conceded early, and had to forge comebacks to advance. Tuesday, Nov. 3, No. 7 South’s boys dropped a five-goal second half on Grants Pass to win 6-2.

A day later, after 80 minutes and overtime and a goal each, Beaverton took No. 6 South’s girls to penalty kicks, where the Axe won in sudden-death kicks to move on.

South’s girls spend a lot of time talking about what type of team they want to be — ”in not just the good moments, but in the hard moments,” South girls head coach Hannah Young said.

“We’ve been talking about moments like that since the first day of the season — what type of team do we want to be if it’s five minutes into a playoff game, and we go down, and we were favored to win?” Young said.

That’s what happened Wednesday, when Beaverton went up 1-0 after 34 minutes.

“The girls bring it together, they huddle, they talk through it, they make sure that we’re all on the same page again, and then we just bounce back and we respond,” Young said. “We focus on the parts that are in our control, always.” 

Respond they did. Junior Presley Johnston scored South’s only goal Wednesday, a second-half free kick from 25 yards which rooted the goalkeeper and tucked into the bottom left corner before senior Emma Pettersson scored the Axe’s sixth penalty after the Beavers’ taker missed.

“I saw it hit the post,” Johnston said of her free kick, “and I was kind of like, ‘Uh-oh.’ But then it went ricocheting in, so that was good.”

The boys’ rally began Tuesday after head coach Pete Peterson took them into the locker room at the half down 2-1, read off Grants Pass’ stats — 40 minutes, two shots, two goals — told them to believe and to “just play,” and then left them to talk.

“They’re the ones who ultimately have to make the decisions and they’re the ones who have to play,” Peterson said. “That’s how we handled halftime — it was all about just settling them down, telling them that we did not have to hurry, that this game was ours for the taking. That was it.”

Boys soccer matchups

Advancing:

6A No. 7 South Eugene 6, No. 23 Grants Pass 2 

Next: No. 7 South at No. 2 Cleveland, Nov. 7, 3 p.m.

4A No. 10 Marist Catholic 1, No. 7 Cascade 1 (Marist won 5-4 on penalty kicks)

Next: No. 10 Marist at No. 2 Valley Catholic, Nov. 7, 1 p.m.

Eliminated:

5A No. 1 Summit 4, No. 16 Springfield 1

5A No. 9 Silverton 4, No. 8 Willamette 2

3A No. 3 Dayton 6, No. 13 Pleasant Hill 0

Girls soccer matchups

Advancing: 

6A No. 6 South Eugene 1, No. 22 Beaverton 1 (South won 5-4 on penalty kicks)

Next: No. 6 South at No. 3 Central Catholic, Nov. 7, time TBD 

5A No. 1 North Eugene 3, No. 16 Mountain View 0

Next: No. 9 La Salle Prep at No. 1 North, Nov. 7, 12:30 p.m.

4A No. 4 Marist Catholic 8, No. 13 Molalla 0

Next: No. 5 Klamath Union at No. 4 Marist, Nov. 7, 3 p.m.

3A/2A/1A No. 8 Creswell 2, No. 9 Brookings-Harbor 0

Next: No. 8 Creswell at No. 1 Catlin Gabel, Nov. 7, time TBD

3A/2A/1A No. 7 Pleasant Hill 3, No. 10 Riverside 0 

Next: No. 7 Pleasant Hill at No. 2 Oregon Episcopal, Nov. 7, time TBD

Eliminated:

5A No. 4 Bend 8, No. 13 Thurston 0

5A No. 3 Summit 4, No. 14 Churchill 0

5A No. 2 Sandy 2, No. 15 Willamette 0

4A No. 2 Scappoose 8, No. 15 Cottage Grove 0