Shorecrest Soccer survives, advances to semi-finals at Shoreline Stadium Friday

The Shorecrest Scots  soccer team defeated last year's 3A champs, Liberty, 4-3 Saturday night in the quarter-finals of the State 2A Girls Soccer tournament to advance to the semi-finals this weekend at Shoreline Stadium.

Shorecrest, with an 18-4 record this season, faces Ridgefield  (18-2-1)  Friday evening at 6 at Shoreline Stadium in one semi-final match, while Ephrata (19-1) and Squalicum (21-0-1) square off at 8 in the other semi-final.

If it's true that big players make big plays in big games, then the Scots' talented junior Sophia Viviano proved herself worthy of the accolade as she scored all four Shorecrest goals ... in the second half of what proved to be a real seesaw game.

The Patriots, utilizing their home field advantage, came out on fire and scored in the first five minutes, and they took that 1-0 lead into the halftime locker room.

Viviano evened the score thirteen minutes into the second half, only to see Liberty quickly respond with their second goal a mere two minutes later to put them up 2-1.

Five minutes later, though, Viviano tied the game up at 2-2. Then she scored again with 14 minutes left to play to give the Scots the lead, 3-2.

But defending champions die hard, and Liberty tied the score again in the very next minute. 3-3.

With ten minutes to play, Viviano gave her team the lead for the final time with her 30th goal of the season.

"This game did one on my heart. The girls played so hard in the second half. We are all happy to be going back to the Final 4 -  now it's time to get it done," enthused Mindy Dalziel, Scots coach, after the game.  "There was no way we were coming home without that win."

Shorecrest has five girls' soccer championship banners hanging from their gym rafters (1983-85-92-93-96). Their last visit to the semi-finals was in 2008 when they placed fourth.