By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

INDEPENDENCE, Ore.– Defense has been something that the Silverton Girls Soccer team has set their hat on the past few games. 

Including Thursday night’s 3-0 win over Central, a continuation game from an earlier date that saw the game stopped at the 26:33 mark of the first half due to the lights shutting off in the stadium with the Foxes leading 1-0, the Foxes have pieced together five shutouts in their last six games as they are now 4-0-1 in Mid-Willamette Conference play following their victory.

Defense had been a major factor this week especially in the first half.  Against West Albany, it was 0-0 at halftime of Silverton’s 3-0 win on Tuesday and defense was strong once more as they held onto a 1-0 lead going into the second half.  All with a sophomore in net in Ella Lulich, who’s been improving throughout the season.

“It’s pretty scary because I have to save it for the seniors.  It’s their senior year and I need to show up for them,” Lulich said.  “I think I’m doing pretty well.”

The second half has been Silverton’s bread-and-butter as they look to build more consistently throughout the match with three games remaining in the regular season.  Something that they’ve been working on as a unit this season.

“It’s been big.  We need to do it more and we need to get a little bit better at it, but as the season progresses and as we’re getting closer to the end, I think we’ve come a very long way,” said Trillium Hawley.  “These next practices will be crucial.  We’re going to be doing a lot of conditioning, a lot of sprints to stay with our level.”

The Foxes finished the season at Corvallis Tuesday, home against Crescent Valley and away at McKay to close out the season.  Lillan Miller, Kailea Buckley and Yesenia Gasper scored the goals in Thursday’s 3-0 victory over the Panthers.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald