On Oct. 27 Issaquah girls JV soccer handedly defended their undefeated streak (only tying 2-2 with Eastlake on September 30) 7-0 against Newport JV. Standout performances came from Issaquah’s freshman Sophie Penton with a hat trick (3 points), Issaquah’s freshman Cate Kovats, Issaquah’s sophomore Eleri Parry, and Newport’s goalie with a few great saves, including one of a point-blank curve shot. However, the entirety of Issaquah came ready to play for that game, as the ball never touched their side of the field until 5 minutes into the game when they passed the ball backwards to their own defense and they continued to dominate the whole game. 

With the one-sidedness of the game there was little excitement to be had, trying to predict who would win. Issaquah’s goalie never had much chance to show off their skills. Newport’s goalie, however, had plenty of chance to practice. Despite what was shown on the scoreboard, Issaquah seemed to not be shooting well during this game, as a lot of the shots they took were far off target or were straight to the goalie’s arms. The goals they did score were almost all shots from directly in front of the goal, where shot accuracy is almost entirely a non-factor. However, you can’t argue with the results and many of their good scoring opportunities came when they were able to send a cross in front of the net where a one touch shot sealed the point for them. Notable examples include the first goal of the game, a cross from Parry to Kovats and another cross from Eleri to sophomore Katy Doyle. It would of course be remiss not to mention the standout performance of Issaquah’s Penton who scored her first goal 14:30 into the game and managed to secure a hat trick only two minutes later. Her merit however did not only come from an ability to score, in the second half she used her blazing speed to chase down a Newport striker who had the ball with no defense in front of her, and steal it, stopping a one-on-one and an almost certain goal in the process. 

As soon as the game started, you could tell how it was going to go. Issaquah quickly stole the ball from Newport off of their kickoff and they confidently held the ball for most of the game. The rest of the game followed mostly the same structure, Issaquah confidently moving the ball around the ball around the field, maintaining possession, until a scoring opportunity presented itself, when they would rush the goal, trying to land a cross. Sometimes, Newport would take the ball and try to make a break, but Issaquah was always able to effectively shut them down. At around 6:30 Issaquah attempted to end the game simply by trying to just hold the ball and stall out the clock. They were thus able to successfully close out another great game.