Kelsey Turnbow scores four as Central Valley repeats as State 4A soccer champs
PUYALLUP, Wash. – Central Valley needed penalty kicks to claim last year’s State 4A girls soccer championship.
Bears sophomore Kelsey Turnbow made sure securing title No. 2 didn’t require such dramatics.
Turnbow scored four goals with her first coming in the 3rd minute as the Bears successfully defended their state title with a 5-2 victory over Jackson in the final.
“She’s just an amazing player,” Central Valley coach Andres Monrroy said about Turnbow. “The team’s job is to feed her and her job is to score.”
Turnbow did plenty of that against the Timberwolves scoring twice in each half.
“We played so well as a team out there today,” said Turnbow, who fired a match-high nine shots with seven on goal. “Getting that first goal so early really gave us a lot of energy. It set the tone.”
Central Valley (20-2), without Turnbow who was away with the U.S. U-14 National Team, defeated Issaquah, 3-2 on PKs to win their first state title last season and join Federal Way (1991-92) and Skyline (2008-09 and 2011-12) as the only programs to win consecutive 4A state championships.
“We’ve been so dominant this season,” Monrroy said.
“The seniors deserve this. They put in so much hard work over the last four years to turn this into a great program. (Winning state) never gets old.”
Holding a 3-2 advantage with 11 minutes to play, Megan Dimmler gave Central Valley some breathing room, scoring on a goal assisted by Katie Van Etten before Turnbow closed out the scoring with her fourth goal in the 75th minute.
The Bears, who needed a goal in the last minute of play from Dimmler to put away Gig Harbor, 1-0, in the semifinals, wasted little time finding the back of the net in the championship match.
Minutes into the contest, Alaina Bates fired a shot which missed the mark, but dangerously trickled in front of the goal just out of the reach of Jackson goalkeeper Callie Vanaelst.
Turnbow quickly closed in on the loose ball, beating a Jackson defender to the spot in front of goal before pounding it in, forcing the Timberwolves to play catch-up from there on out.
The forward added her second goal – an unassisted blast from about 24 yards out – in the 39th minute to put Central Valley up 2-0.
Jackson was able to cut the deficit in half right before the intermission on Madison Cooley’s goal during first-half stoppage time.
However, whatever momentum the Timberwolves took into the locker room at the half was quickly wrestled away on Turnbow’s third goal four minutes after the restart.
Jackson scored three goals in the final 7 minutes of play to surprise Skyline, 3-2, in the semifinals.
Turnbow’s scoring barrage made sure a repeat performance did not occur.
1A consolation
For the second straight season, Lakeside’s season ended at the feet of University Prep.
The Eagles finished fourth in the State 1A tournament, losing 2-0 to the Pumas.
University Prep ousted Lakeside in the first round of last year’s tournament.
The fourth-place finish was Lakeside’s highest since it placed third in 2010.