Entering its final week of regular season action, Yelm High School’s girls soccer team sits with a 5-5-1 record (1-5-1 SPSL) with just three contests remaining.
Despite winning and tying one contest each in the South Puget Sound League, Yelm’s head coach Jay Dorhauer said the team is “not out of it” when asked about his outlook for the remainder of the 2024 season on Monday, Sept. 21.
“It seems crazy with our record, but there’s quite a few down at the bottom with us,” Dorhauer said. “You have the top half that are clearly heads and shoulders above the rest — at least the top three, with Sumner, Curtis and Puyallup. We’re going to try and finish this thing out.”
During the Tornados’ 2-2 tie with South Kitsap on Thursday, Oct. 17, Dorhauer said the team was trailing early, 1-0, but was able to bounce back and tie it up shortly thereafter.
“We made a pretty bad mistake on the second goal. Jada (Katona, goalie) had a pretty easy ball in her hands. She’s calling it, and a girl stepped in front of her, failed to clear it and put it right next to a girl on South K. It was an easy goal for them,” Dorhauer said. “It was 2-1 at half, and we’ve never come back from behind before. We’ve been behind, but we’ve never been able to come back from behind. I challenged them, and reminded them that just because we’re trailing doesn’t mean it’s over.”
He said the Tornados played a great second half despite only having two subs on the bench in its second contest of the week. He noted that most girls played the entire contest. Last in the game, the senior, Holly Dorhauer, tied the game up at 2 with a free kick.
“Her game is taking off now,” Jay Dorhauer said. “She’s starting to read the game, see angles and think her way through games, not just rely on her physical skills. She got the free kick and said after the goalie set up the wall, she knew she was going to score, and she did. She buried that free kick.”
Results from Yelm’s home matchup with SPSL opponent Puyallup on Tuesday, Oct. 22, were not available prior to the Nisqually Valley News going to print. Following the matchup with the Vikings, the Tornados will set their sights on the Graham Kapowsin Eagles in a matchup on Thursday, Oct. 24, in Graham. Dorhauer described the team’s second-to-last matchup of the season as a “huge game.”
“It’s really a must win game for us. It’s doable too,” Dorhauer said. “If we can get that second win, it’d be huge. It would put us right in the running, but it’d be close depending on what GK and South Kitsap do down the stretch. We just have to take care of what we can take care of. We can’t worry about anything else, control what we can control, and the games in front of us are what we can control.”
Following the contest against the Eagles on Thursday, Oct. 24, Yelm will host its final regular season match of the 2024 season at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29, and will celebrate 10 seniors prior to the game beginning.
The celebrated seniors will include Salma Diaz, Sienna Venuto, Holly Dorhauer, Mariah Arnestad, Sage Rough, Adrionna Gaines, Alexa Wasankari, Myanna Hernandez, Samantha Blank and Haylee Silvia. His message to the departing seniors was to “fight to the end.”
“I tell them all the time that I still go back to St. Louis and get together with my high school friends. We immediately start talking about old soccer games. It’s going to be with you for the rest of your life,” Jay Dorhauer said. “You could really create some great memories with a great last week. More, mostly, the friendships you form here, you’re keeping them the rest of your life. You’ll always have that bond.”
On the flip of the coin, Dorhauer said four freshmen, Addison Cunningham, Rylee Hamilton, Kinlee Cook and Aryana Barone, have proven themselves throughout the season when asked.
“They’re doing a great job. Our most consistent has probably been Kinlee and Rylee,” Dorhauer said. “With (Cunningham), she’s what you’d expect from a freshman. She has some games where the game is a little ahead of her but some games where she also takes charge.”
He said that seeing her playtime increase due to injuries, Barone has “really taken off” throughout the late season.
“I think early in the year, the game was a little bit faster paced than what she was used to,” Dorhauer said. “Now, she’s out there just playing soccer. I don’t think she’s thinking as much. She’s just playing and has made a huge jump in her game.”
