SPORTS
by Jack Kintner

Blaine wins by Richardson’s ‘hat trick

The Lady B’s ran their record to 5-1 over-all, 2-1 in conference play, by defeating Nooksack last Tuesday at the Pipe on Bailey Richardson’s hat trick plus goals by Alison Raine and Alyssa Hendrickson.

The previous weekend the girls beat Sultan. The town, not much more than a wide place in the road, has a strong soccer tradition that makes them tough to beat. Not for this year’s Blaine team, though, who played them even through two overtimes and beat them in the post-game shoot out.

At the Pipe, coach Dan Steelquist needed to shuffle the cards a bit as two of his starters were benched, Kristen Ellsbree with a broken bone in her hand and Alkyssa Makalai with a quad pull.

He put Bailey Richardson up front with her doubles partner in tennis, Alyssa Hendrickson. “Since they picked up the game just last year but quickly became good enough in doubles to go to the state tournament,” Steelquist observed, “one might conclude they work well together.”
They do, and did, although Blaine took a little time to settle in, firing a half dozen shots to the right of the Nooksack goal as if the field itself were tilted.

Alison Raine finally opened Blaine’s scoring in the 22nd minute on an assist from Hendrickson with a beautiful push up the right side and over a sprawling Nooksack keeper.

From then on it was like watching cats play with mice.

Two minutes later a Nooksack mid was called for a hard check and Richardson was given a free kick.

There’s no need to wait for a whistle or signal from a ref when free kicking, so Richardson quickly plopped the ball on the turf, booted it across and downfield to Hendrickson who one-touched it into the net while the Nooksack players were still rubbing their eyes to make it 2-nil Blaine.

Ten minutes later Richardson got her own goal on an assist from Bre Olason to make it 3-nil at the half. Two minutes into the second half Richardson got her second goal on an assist from senior defenseman Belinda Crowson, who booted a pass well downfield to Richardson which, when Richardson finished, also became an assist.

Nooksack’s Becca Schneider squirreled one past Blaine’s steady keeper Janelle Gobbato to ruin her shut-out, but one minute later Richardson scored for a third time for the hat trick and the lopsided 5-1 win.

Blaine’s next opponent is Squalicum, a night road game to be played at 7 p.m. at Bellingham’s Civic Field on Thursday, September 21.