It’s all about defense for the Bayhawks, and it worked in their favor.
Bellingham defeated Ferndale 1-0 in a key Northwest Conference match on Oct. 6 to put them in a third-place tie with Burlington-Edison in the league standings.
“I think our whole team played really, really well,” said Spencer Wolfe, Bellingham’s coach. “[Ferndale is] a good team, they have a lot of strong, attacking players, and create a lot of dangerous opportunities. I think we did a good job of bending but not breaking at times.”
Ferndale dominated offensively for the majority of the first half. They kept the ball on Bellingham’s side of the field consistently enough to inflict a sense of urgency on the Bayhawks.
Bellingham defender Kira Carlson finally cracked the goose eggs in the 28th minute with a well-placed high kick that slipped past Ferndale’s junior goalkeeper Sofia Gardoski.
The Golden Eagles had their opportunities but could not seem to break the impenetrable wall set up by the Bayhawks’ defense. Every time Ferndale made a push, Bellingham was there with a counter-effort.
“I thought we had our chances [in the] first half but we didn’t convert,” said Rigel Weis, Ferndale’s coach. “Sometimes that’s soccer.”
Wolfe said his team’s communication was especially good in this game, and he was proud of the defensive performance.
“We caused them a lot of problems and didn’t quite let them get into a rhythm, which I felt like helped a lot,” Wolfe said.
Each team had its respective offensive pushes in the second half, but neither could capitalize. The Golden Eagles were gritty, putting forth multiple scoring attempts in the final 10 minutes. They could not convert, and the final whistle eventually came.
Bellingham’s junior keeper Opal Barker and Gardoski each finished with four saves. Despite some impressively calculated shots on goal by both sides, Carlson’s goal stood as the lone score.
“We’ve had some injuries and just kind of bad luck the last couple games,” Wolfe said. “We had this kind of circled as a little bit of ‘let’s get back on track’ game. The girls responded really, really well. I thought we played with a lot of confidence; we played with a lot of communication and passion that we’ve been talking about.”
Bellingham moved to 5-2-2 overall and 2-1-2 in NWC matches with the win. The Bayhawks broke a three-game streak that included no wins, two ties and a loss. Ferndale dropped to 3-5-2 overall and 1-3-1 in conference matches.
The Bayhawks will get a chance to redeem their early-season 2-1 loss to Sehome when Bellingham hosts the Mariners on Oct. 10 at 7 p.m. Next up for Ferndale is a trip to Anacortes on Oct. 10 for a game that is also set to start at 7 p.m.
