As the second half kicked off under the twilight sky at Pop Keeney Stadium in Bothell on Oct. 13, the Woodinville Falcons High School girls soccer team was only staring down a 1-0 deficit. They were facing the Issaquah Eagles, one of the top teams in the state, but the Falcons were more than holding their own.
As the clock continued to click toward triple zeros, Issaquah (10-0-2, 7-0-1 KingCo) forward Hadley Paget raced along the sideline and fired a shot towards the goal. The ball skidded across the turf and snuck inside the right goalpost, doubling the Eagles’ lead. Less than five minutes later, they added a third.
Woodinville (4-8, 4-4 KingCo) ultimately succumbed to Issaquah 3-0. The loss secured the Falcons first under 0.500 finish since the 2018-19 season, just two years after they lost in Class 4A state championship games in 2023 and 2024.
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“We knew this was going to be a really hard game,” midfielder Cameron Ward said. “[Issaquah] always have been really good, but we did keep them 1-0 most of the game, which was good because we changed up our formation to be a little bit more defensive.”
The Eagles took advantage of the Falcons’ preventative play, staying on offense and keeping the pressure on Woodinville through most of the match. Their first goal came just 14 minutes into the game on a corner kick, with Woodinville goalkeeper Grace Van De Wege losing track of the ball in a crowded box.
But it was Van De Wege’s play that held Woodinville within striking distance. The junior faced a peppering by the Eagles attack, but made four first-half saves, including one at full extension to get her fingertips on an Issaquah shot headed for the top corner.
“Grace is phenomenal,” Woodinville head coach Kamille Skinner said. “She has that calm, really stoic nature about her which I think is huge for us. In that goalkeeper defensive position, you just need to have that calm control.”
Woodinville’s season got off to a rough 1-7 start, with its lone win coming in a 1-0 overtime triumph against the Eastlake Wolves. It continued league play in the KingCo Crown division – one of the toughest high school leagues in the state – with three losses, including 4-0 defeats to the Lake Washington Kangaroos and the Bellevue Wolverines.
But the Falcons then flipped their season around with three straight victories, including shut-out wins over the North Creek Jaguars and Hazen Highlanders.
“No one competes to lose, but I will say our non-league games, we played some of the tougher teams that are not in our conference,” Skinner said. “I think that it was eye opening for us. … It showed us the things that we really need to work on coming into our league games, but I think that win streak re-lit that fire for us.”
Unfortunately, things didn’t get any easier for Woodinville. The Falcons’ next two matchups were a 4-1 loss against the Skyline Spartans, who dropped just two conference games on the season, and a 1-0 defeat to the Mount Si Wildcats, last year’s state champions. Woodinville followed up its three-game win streak with three-straight losses against the three top teams in the conference. Woodinville was able to end its regular season on a high note, defeating their rival Bothell Cougars 1-0.
But the Falcons haven’t lost their confidence, and they know what they need to do to get to the top of their division.
“Making sure we’re communicating, making sure we’re playing together as a team,” Ward said. “I’m really sure we have these games if we just work together.”
Woodinville began postseason play with a 4-0 win over North Creek on Oct. 24, sending them to the second round where they upset the No. 7-seed Redmond Mustangs. The Falcons quest for a state title came to an end in the next round against No. 2-seed Lake Stevens in a 2-1 loss. Woodinville will finish their season in the consolation bracket, where they’ll face the No. 5-seed Kamiak Knights on Wednesday, Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. at Goddard Stadium in Snohomish County.
