Heading into the girls soccer season, Clackamas was dealing with a thorny issue.
Three players who left the team as juniors last year to participate in the Portland Thorns Academy had returned, and fitting them back into the lineup – along with two more former Thorns players in transfers from West Linn and La Salle Prep – was going to require a delicate touch.
“It was either going to be a total fail, or we were going to live up to the potential,” Cavaliers coach Manuel Martinez said.
Consider it a success. Third-ranked Clackamas (10-2-1, 6-0 Mt. Hood Conference) extended its winning streak to eight games by beating Central Catholic 4-0 on Tuesday night. The Cavaliers can complete a perfect run through the conference with a win at Sandy on Thursday.
“We’re kind of right where I expected us to be,” Martinez said. “We had a talented team last year, even without them. Just adding those girls to the mix, I knew that if it was going to be any year, it was going to be this year.”
The team started hearing rumblings in the spring that three of its former players – midfielders Emma Anderson and Peyton Fendrich and forward Ellie Busik – would return from the Thorns. Their addition, plus the transfer of senior goalkeeper Hallie Byzewski from West Linn and senior forward Ellie Gentry from La Salle Prep, would create a crowded roster.
“What I always tell them is I never have a team set, so even if you played varsity last year, you’ve got to come back and show yourself in tryouts,” Martinez said.
The Cavaliers, who lost in the first round of the 6A playoffs the last three years, had many key returning players, including Mt. Hood first-team picks in junior forward Kyla Sullivan and senior defender Kori Walters. Loaded with talent, Martinez opted to his expand his varsity roster to 22.
“Everybody was kind of telling me, ‘You’re crazy,’” said Martinez, in his third season as coach. “If I would’ve left some of them on JV, even though they would’ve been crushing teams, they wouldn’t have been developing. I kind of thought, ‘What’s going to happen next year when those 12 seniors leave?’”
As a result, Clackamas “kind of has two teams in one,” according to Martinez. After tryouts, the coach had a conference with each player, defined their roles and had them agree by signing their evaluation sheet.
The Cavaliers’ lineup features eight players that have committed to colleges in Gentry (Seattle Pacific), Busik (Grand Canyon), Fendrich (University of Redlands), Anderson (Grand Canyon), Walters (Mississippi State), Byzewski (North Dakota), senior forward Madeline Tetz (Oregon State) and senior defender Chloe Benson (Pacific Lutheran).
Clackamas is explosive, scoring 57 goals, the third most in 6A. Sullivan has 11 goals and 24 in her career, on pace to break the school mark of 32. Sophomore midfielder Aidan Brown has eight goals and six assists and Tetz has seven goals.
The Cavaliers scored a season high in an 11-0 win over Gresham last week.
“When we’re on, it’s just so quick,” Martinez said. “We just overwhelm the other team. Everything increases. We just go to this different speed of play. When it’s at its best, all 11 of them get to that level.”
Clackamas was shut out in both of its losses, though, falling to No. 1 Jesuit 5-0 in its opener and No. 2 West Linn 4-0 on Sept. 17. In the loss to Jesuit, the reigning state champion Crusaders “just blew us away,” according to Martinez.
“They have three girls that you’re just not going to stop on your best day,” he said. “They’re going to get one or two on you. And we weren’t even on our best day. As a team, we probably practiced three times before we played Jesuit.”
The presence of Jesuit, ranked No. 1 in the nation by TopDrawerSoccer.com, hangs over the rest of 6A. Does anyone have a chance against the Crusaders, or are they that good?
“Jesuit is that good,” Martinez said. “But we will definitely play them differently when we see them again. It’s definitely going to be a different strategy.”
