Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 2004)
idol Section « lugars topple competition ave coached state champions, but not a team this-!99 - Tracy Nelson, Head Soccer Coach N.P. Delzell Clackamas Print Tiana Meduri does the hustle by going down hard for a ball during the season’s play. Meduri scored two goals during iionship game, aiding in the six goal shutout of Tacoma. The Lady Cougars finished an impressive season with an even •essive championship game, setting a record for the most goals scored in an NWAACC championship game. they put on a scoring exhibition and fly right over the outstretched left no doubt in the minds of théir hands of the Tacoma goalie. Moments after Meduri’s goal, fellow competitors who the best will go down as a day of team in the NWAACC was this sea Tacoma had two golden opportuni ties to tie the score at one apiece. the women soccer pro- son. The Cougars wasted no time in On both occasions the ball handler t Clackamas, for on this for Tacoma n won the school’s first the season’s last had a break championship in the game by scoring away and a te the fact that the team first, thanks to a one-on-one heir third year of exis- killer penalty shot "I didn 7 expect to chance with by freshman blow away the Cougar Goalie linning their first two Tianna Meduri. Jessica he playoffs by way of The Clackamas competition like Engeman. i Lady Cougars took the forward lined up we did, but the Engeman was iip game to a different from about 25 able to ¡not only got their third yards away from team stepped up approach the I the 2004 postseason, the net, and let one and did what they attacks from had to do to win.” the opposition and change the trajectory of their shots to Tracy Nelson preserve thé Head Soccer Coach Cougars’ 1-0 lead. Just min utes after the two missed Tacoma chances, Clackamas began to pull away. The Cougars’ second goal came from freshman Emily Ingalls. The goal was assisted by Amanda Triller, who placed a perfectly positioned ball into the goal box from the corner. To finish off the first half, Southwest Division MVP Vicky Rodríguez added two goals no more than 45 seconds apart from each other to give the champs a commanding 4-0 halftime cushion. Cougar Head Coach Tracy Nelson couldn’t have been more proud of the team for the effort they put into the game. As the second half began, the relentless effort of Clackamas continued as Meduri added her second goal of the game. Then, with less than five min utes remaining and with the Cougars having all but won the championship, something spe cial happened. In her final game as a Cougar, sophomore Katie O’Brien ended her com munity college career in a fit ting fashion, scoring the Cougars’ final goal of the year shley Webster, number 8, shows off her dribbling skills in a and capping off a perfect sea son with a 6-0 victory. son match-up. I McCormack tmas Print The Cougars put up some impressive numbers this season and not all of them came from the offensive end of the ball. With a defensive effort from Megan Diebel, Trisha Little and Stephanie Rodríguez, not to mention the stel lar goalkeeping of Engeman, Clackamas only allowed five goals all season and shutout an astonish ing 17 of 22 opponents faced. Along with that exceptional defense came an explosive offense which scored 80 goals for the sea son. “I didn’t expect to blow away the competition like we did, but the team stepped up and did what they had to do to win,” Nelson said. “At the end, everything came together; that was one of the best games we had played all season.” With the season over now the Cougars can look forward to defending their title next year. “We need to recruit for a new team every year; it would be great to have all 11 freshmen come back, but you never know,” Nelson said. The Cougars will lose sopho mores Katie O’Brien and Megan Diebel, but know that by winning this championship it can only help their future. The Clackamas coaches are aware that there are players from all around who want to play for a win ner, and that is what Clackamas has proved to the NWAACC this sea son. Nelson was honored the Southwest Conference Coach of the Year award and freshman Forward Vicky Rodríguez was elected as the MVP. In addition to Rodríguez, five players were elected to represent Clackamas in this year’s All-star game between the Southwest and Northeast divisions of the NWAACC, Medurri, Triller, Little, Engeman, and for the second time in as many years, Diebel will play in the game of the NWAACC All-stars. Coach Nelson couldn’t be happi er for her players and said, “I have never coached an undefeated team before ... I have coached state champions, but not a team like this. Coming into this program, it was our five year goal to be where we are right now.”
