Canby Herald Online

Wolves' reign over Canby continues

Canby loses last Tuesday’s matchup 2-0 at home

• By: Alex Tam  
• Published: 10/5/2009 6:52:10 PM

Photo By: Alex TamA hard-fought loss
Canby High School sophomore midfielder Brittany Gillespie (right) battles for the ball with Tualtin freshman Erica Bruce in the first half of Tuesday's loss.

CANBY – Over the years, Tualatin has been the model for developing a girls soccer program that annually challenges for conference titles and state championships.

And Canby has not been afraid to hide the fact that it eventually wants to develop a program like the one at the school that sits just 15 miles north.

The Cougars got another lesson from Tualatin on Tuesday night in a 2-0 loss at Canby High School in Pacific Conference play.

“I’ll be honest and say it’s going to take that heart to say that we can do it,” first-year Canby coach Ben Winegar said. “It’s taking time but for many years now, it was like a lot of the girls are still having a little bit of a hangover and believing that Tualatin is out of our league. As soon as they get in their mind that these games are winnable – easily at home especially – then we can do that.”

Since Tualatin opened as a high school in 1992, just once in school history has Canby beaten the Timberwolves in girls soccer.

That time occurred six years ago on Oct. 13, 2003 when Canby hung on for a 1-0 victory at home behind a first-half goal from CHS graduate Maria Madeira, who went on to play for Seattle University.

Canby also tied the Timberwolves, 2-2, on Oct. 16, 2007 at home.

Other than that, it’s been a lopsided rivalry between the two schools as Tualatin has developed a strong club youth program that continually feeds into the high school.

With Canby just recently starting to build up its club program and an emphasis on a more ball-control style, Winegar believes it will be just a matter of time and experience.

“Tualatin knows where they need to be and how to get there,” Winegar said. “When it’s like us who haven’t beaten Tualatin in a long time, it’s a tough win. It’s almost like we just need to get over that hump. We need to break down that door and say here we are and we’re here to stay.

“But it’s going to take time. It’s going to take that belief and it’s going to take more than one game to get us over that hump.”

Canby hung with Tualatin for the first 30 minutes of Tuesday’s matchup before the Timberwolves scored off a kick from senior midfielder Jensen Skinner that sailed over the head of Canby senior goalkeeper Emily Dohman.

Tualatin scored one more time in the opening minutes of the second half that left the Cougars playing catch-up the rest of the game.

“We can compete with this team but we need to play mistake-free soccer,” Winegar said. “We made two mistakes (Tuesday) and it cost us two goals – possibly even a little bit more (mistakes) … but we just need to pick it up a little bit more.”

Canby had its opportunities to score as it had the ball within Tualatin’s 18-yard box throughout the game. However, the Cougars could not push the ball through and past Wolves senior goalkeeper Sarah Chizum.

“That’s a certain piece that we’ve been really working on,” Winegar said. “Slowly but surely, we got pretty much in my mind two-thirds of our game done but we just need to work on finishing and keeping it out.”

The two teams meet again on Tuesday, Oct. 20 at Tualatin High School.

“Playing against Tualatin, really getting inside their heads and playing our soccer for the entire first half, you let one mistake in and you have to change things up,” Winegar said. “But overall, I think we learned a lot today and we’ll see them again.”

On Thursday, the Cougars tied Tigard, 1-1, at home, moving to 1-3-2 overall and 0-2-1 in Pacific Conference play.

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