St. George’s girls soccer team making history

A cold wind played havoc as the St. George’s girls soccer team opened practice Tuesday afternoon.

Gusts of 20 miles per hour sent clothing flying and toppled garbage cans at the Dwight Merkel Sports Complex, but nothing fazed the Dragons.

After all, they’d been facing a brisk headwind since 2014.

Until then, there was no girls’ soccer program at St. George’s, a private school north of Spokane. Now the Dragons are two wins from a state title.

“I keep telling my girls and parents that every step of the way we’re making history,” said coach Mark Rickard, a faculty member who until 2014 was an assistant for boys coach Heidi Melville.

The next step is onto a charter bus that will take both St. George’s teams to Sunset Chev Stadium in Sumner, site of Friday’s State 1B/2B semifinals. The girls will face Liberty Bell at 4 p.m. and the boys take on Prescott at 8.

Out of dozens of high school soccer teams in the Inland Northwest, only two are still alive, and both are from the same school.

The St. George’s boys have been there, done that several times, and won the state title last year. But for five girls, the sense of arrival in Sumner will be more emotional than physical.

Two years ago, Alison Day, Cate Caporicci, Maddy Christiansen, Sarah Gortier and Olivia Osborne began this soccer journey with more questions than answers.

“In the beginning I didn’t know what to expect,” said Day, the only sophomore to sign up two seasons ago. Now she’s the only senior on a team that’s two wins from a state title.

For Gortier, then a freshman, the leap required even more faith, since she’d never played the game.

“It was so scary. I was so nervous,” said Gortier, now a junior forward.

Rickard got the ball rolling. He piecemealed a schedule made up of JV teams from the Greater Spokane League and a few from North Idaho. And he recruited the players – all the way down to eighth-graders after petitioning the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association.

One of them was Christiansen, who had soccer experience but was suddenly pulled from her middle-school comfort zone.

“I was so scared,” said Christiansen, who grew up in a hurry. Now she’s a sophomore midfielder with 15 goals and a team-high 13 assists.

Back in 2014, the only goal was to get through the season and build for the next. The Dragons surprised even themselves with a 3-2 win over Medical Lake in their second match, but never won again and finished 1-15.

“It was tough at the beginning,” recalled Osborne, now a junior defender. “But our team has really developed.”

The Dragons improved to 11-6 last year, gaining confidence but not too much. Certainly no amount of optimism could have foreseen what happened this fall. St. George’s is 16-3, with eight shutouts and only nine goals given up by keepers Osborne and Caporicci.

“It’s been amazing,” Caporicci said.

Junior Mary Neder has 15 goals, but the leading scorer is freshman Lydia Bergquist, with 24 goals and 10 assists. The future looks bright, as eighth-grader Cambrie Rickard – the coach’s daughter – has put 15 balls in the net.

“I didn’t think we could get this good, this fast, beating teams that we had gotten crushed by before,” marveled Day, a defender and team captain along with Neder and Caporicci.

The biggest lesson, according to Gortier: “Perseverance. We went through a lot and I’m really proud of that.”

Meanwhile, the boys have surprised even Melville, who graduated 11 seniors from last year’s title-winning team that went 18-3.

“I lost a lot of sleep over that question – how in a small school like this are we going to turn it around?” said Melville, now in her sixth year.

After a rough start – the Dragons lost three of their first six – they’ve picked up steam and won four of their last five. Now they’re 12-6-1.

“I was a bit surprised, I didn’t think it would turn out this well,” Melville said.

The Dragons have one of the top strikers in the state in junior midfielder Mitchell Ward, who has 31 goals. Ward scored twice in the 3-0 win over Mount Vernon Christian that sent the Dragons back to the Final Four.

Many of those goals have been set up by brothers Caelan and Oscar Angell, a senior-freshman midfield duo who’ve combined for 15 goals and 18 assists.

Another freshman, goalkeeper Noah Galow, has given up just 20 goals in 16 matches.