Grant girls soccer forces scoreless tie with Jesuit in 6A state title rematch

BEAVERTON – The rivalry of Oregon 6A high school girls soccer of the past few years was renewed Monday, Sept. 15 with No. 2 Grant on the road to play No. 1 Jesuit.

Physical play, shots on goal and plenty of back and forth resulted in an intense match.

However, it didn’t result in any goals.

The Generals and Crusaders played to a scoreless tie, setting up for a possible dramatic finish later down the road as the two also played each other in last season’s state title game.

Grant certainly would have liked a win after falling in that state title game a year ago, but getting the tie a week after falling to 5A powerhouse Wilsonville was a welcomed sight for a relatively new group of Generals.

“Jesuit was our next big competition, l think it’s kind of how playoffs will be like, and I think we’re trying to get our flow down,” Grant junior Maddie Crawford said. “We lost a lot of our key players last year. I think Wilsonville, we didn’t exactly have our flow down. … I feel like today we definitely had it down more.”

Last week, Grant dominated the second half of the game against Wilsonville but couldn’t buy a goal, falling 1-0.

Against Jesuit, the plan was to force the Crusaders to work in the middle of the field and not let their speedy wingers do damage from the outside.

In the first half, that mission was accomplished as Jesuit was limited to only a couple decent looks, but never anything that seemed too dangerous for the Generals.

“We know Jesuit likes to advance the ball from their outside players,” Grant head coach Manolis Tjuanakis said. “We took that away and forced them to go more central, and I felt they were a little slow on that because they had to make a decision. … I feel like we have the speed to match them on the outside.”

The problem was Jesuit could match them with the roles reversed as well, resulting in a first half where Grant had two corner kicks and two shots on goal compared to the Crusaders two shots on goal and one corner.

In the second half, Jesuit started to pepper in more shots, including in the 54th minute when Jesuit sophomore Aaliyah Johnson broke free from three Grant defender for a wide-open look on goal.

However, Johnson fired the shot right into the arms of Grant goalkeeper Lucy Kapranos for the save, keeping the match knotted at zero.

Jesuit landed four more shots on goal following the close encounter, but again, none of them ever seemed too threatening for the Grant defense.

“I feel like we got tired a little bit, got a little lazy on (pushing Jesuit to the middle),” Crawford said. “But for the main part, we focused on tucking and forced them into the middle.”

Crawford was a big part of not only keeping Jesuit from moving up field on the outside, but also pushing it forward for the Grant attack.

Constantly the junior was able to be first to a ball, or stop a Crusader attacking from getting anywhere in the final third. Then she’d turn up field and get a chance to make a touch pass into the opposite final third.

“(Crawford) had a heck of a night,” Tjuanakis said. “Her ball work, she’s fit so she can play box-to-box, her versatility so we can play her in the middle, we can play her on the outside, move her back a little bit. She has grown a lot this year, I’m glad she’s on our team.”

When it wasn’t Crawford, senior Brook Wesener was doing much of the same from the middle of the field.

Early in the first half, the senior had a decent look on goal that was saved, but her attack will be needed as fellow senior and two-time PIL Player of the Year Nailani Solomon draws a crowd most of the time.

“(Wesener) did a fantastic job, she held the ball well, turned on the defenders and had some good shots from distance,” Tjuanakis said. “Her work was very good off the ball. She was closing angles for the defenders to advance the ball.”

“(Solomon) can be double-teamed, tripled down on the line, so it’s really big on me and (Wesener) to get open,” Crawford added. “If three people are on (Solomon), that means two people are wide open on the other side.”

While that opportunity didn’t present itself in the match against Jesuit, the Generals were still able to hold their ground in the second half. They matched Jesuit’s attack in the final 10 minutes to get a couple decent looks on goal.

What the night showed was the matchup is still quite even between what could be the two best teams in the state. And that loss to Wilsonville is well in the past for a Grant team that Crawford believes should be in the state title game and winning it this time.

“Of course we were looking forward to this game,” Tjuanakis said. “We knew this game would be very critical for both teams, and I’m glad we responded the way that we did.”