Washington girls soccer upended at Solon

SOLON — Washington did all it could Tuesday night to survive elimination and advance to the Class 1A Region 7 final.

For the Demons, Solon was just too much as the Spartans picked up the victory 4-0.

The Demons showed that it wasn’t going to be easy for the Spartans.

For over 20 minutes, Washington held strong negating Solon every chance at the back of the net.

“We dropped a couple back just to be prepared on defense,” Washington head coach Steven Caulk said. “That worked in the sense that we didn’t give up our first goal until well into the game.”

It wasn’t until the 17:37 mark in the first that the Spartans found their first goal of the game of a deflection, which allowed the ball to roll into the net.

While the Demon defense showed prowess, it didn’t transition into the offense as Solon kept the majority of possession in the Demons half of the field.

“They controlled the center of the field,” Caulk said. “That’s an area that we wanna control and we just were not able to keep up with their footwork.”

Despite the one sided possession, it looked as if Solon was going to go into the half with just a 1-0 lead, but with six seconds on the clock the Spartans put the ball into the net for the second time.

In the second, it was much of the same.

Every Washington through ball up the middle found its way to the keeper as the ball skated across the turf.

Solon added two additional goals, with the third of the game coming just over eight minutes into the half, 32:50.

The Spartans added the final goal with 58 seconds left in the contest.

Senior star Greta Rothe said that this season has been one of the most fun throughout her high school career.

“This year, this team has been such a family,” Rothe said. “At practice it’s been so fun. We’re working hard, but we’re laughing the whole time. A lot of days I’ll come to practice, maybe it’s just a bad day or not feeling the best and I always feel better after than when I came. It’s because of the group of people and the coaches and the atmosphere that is created. It’s been such a big impact on my life. It’s directly impacted so many other parts of my life.”

Washington ends a great 2022 season with a 10-7 overall record.