Marist girls blank The Dalles to claim state soccer title

Wrapping up a dominant postseason run with another clean sheet in the 4A championship game, the Marist Catholic Spartans claimed their second straight state title Saturday, Nov. 15, with a 2-0 victory over The Dalles-Dufur at Liberty High School in Hillsboro.

How dominant? In four postseason games, the Spartans didn’t allow a goal — while scoring 21.

In fact, the Spartans haven’t allowed a goal since Oct. 8 — in a game against North Bend that Marist won 9-1.

Saturday’s championship win marked the 15th time this season that opponents had failed to score against the Spartans. 

And although the final score Saturday seemed relatively close, the match really wasn’t.

The Spartans overwhelmed the Riverhawks, launching 28 shots — 16 of them on goal. Only junior Olivia Prado’s 14 saves stopped the match from becoming a blowout. 

By contrast, the Riverhawks only managed seven shots, and just three of them were on goal. Spartan senior goalie Emily Meigs collected three saves and was rarely threatened by the Riverhawk offense.

And, as was the case so often this season with the Spartans, junior Libby McLaughlin provided the offensive spark.

Senior Piper Paslay opened the scoring early in the second half, when she buried a McLaughlin corner kick into the bottom right side of the net.

McLaughlin added a score about 15 minutes later, fooling Prado on a penalty kick into the top left of the net and essentially closing out the Riverhawks’ hopes for a comeback.

The loss was the first of the year for the Riverhawks, who closed out their season with a 17-1 mark. Marist finished its season with a 17-1-1 record; its only loss came Sept. 4, a 2-1 setback against North Eugene-Triangle Lake, the runners-up in this year’s 5A championship.