ARLINGTON — The line between speed and quickness is often a blurry one.
When the Arlington girls soccer team beat Edmonds-Woodway 4-0 on Sept. 18 — its signature win out of five straight to open the season — Warriors coach Bill LeCompte said it was the Eagles’ team speed that was difficult for his defense to match.
Although four of Arlington’s forwards and midfielders also participate in track and field, Arlington coach Nathan Davis said he thinks his team is better described as quick and skilled, which can be mistaken for speed when taken in tandem.
“Instead of being fast, we’re really quick,” Davis said. “We’re not going to outrun you in a footrace, but in terms of quickness, we’re unparalleled in some cases. Our quickness allows us to counter-attack well and pressure the ball really hard.”
Regardless of which adjective is used, Davis said this year’s squad is the most talented he’s had in 16 years in charge of the program, and represents the Eagles’ best chance to get over the hump at districts and advance to the state tournament for the first time since 1995.
“We’ve always been competitive, especially in the last six or seven years, but we’ve never been top of the table,” Davis said. “In terms of skill, this is (one of) the best teams we’ve had. I’ve had better athletes, but not as many good soccer players.”
Although Arlington’s unbeaten streak to begin the year ended in a 3-2 loss to a quality Shorecrest side last Thursday, the Eagles are 6-1 after Monday night’s 7-2 win over Oak Harbor, the best start to a season in Davis’ tenure.
Davis attributes the success to three consecutive classes of talented players coming through the program, and to a large arsenal of offensive weapons that accounted for 28 goals through the first six matches.
Whereas other Wesco teams might be comprised of players from seven or eight select teams, Arlington’s seniors, juniors and sophomores all play together on three select teams according to age, giving the Eagles an edge in cohesion and field awareness. They know each other’s tendencies and have been successful at the select level together.
“We just click so well together because our teams outside of high school work on the same things that we do here,” said senior forward Bre Morren, a returning first-team All-Wesco selection. “We communicate really well and see the field really well.”
Arlington’s roster lists just three seniors in Morren, midfielder Jillian Busby and defender Kaylee Bartley, a trio that also serves as the team’s captains. It is a group that has bought in wholeheartedly to Arlington High School’s ASB motto of ‘family’ and acts as big sisters for the younger players.
“They all show so much leadership and are really the moms of the group,” said Kat Sanchez, Arlington’s junior goalkeeper. “We blend really well together and most of the girls have known each other for a really long time.”
Davis said this is the first year in a long time that he has not had a freshman on his varsity roster, which speaks to the depth of talent in the sophomore and junior classes.
“Usually you have one or two kids that score most of the goals,” said Olivia Larson, a junior and returning first-team All-Wesco midfielder. “We can count on anyone in the lineup to score.”
The Eagles see the fast start to 2014 as an extension of the end of the 2013 season, when largely the same group of players went 2-1-1 in their final four matches before losing to Kamiak at districts.
That Sept. 18 match at Edmonds-Woodway — a school that dropped from Class 4A to 3A this fall — was a chance for the Eagles to make a statement, and they knew it.
“The whole week before that match, our goal was to beat them,” Bartley said. “We took a long time preparing, and we expected them to be really good and they were. But we started out really well and it just continued the whole game.”
As much as the Eagles were prepared to beat the Warriors that night, they admittedly were not as ready for what came after such a big win.
“I think we all knew we were going to win that night because our confidence level was so high, but we didn’t know about the target that it would put on our backs afterwards,” Sanchez said. “We have a sense after losing to Shorecrest how hard people are going to attack us now.”
Until the Eagles gave up two first-half goals to Shorecrest, the defense anchored by Sanchez and Bartley had allowed just three goals in Arlington’s first five matches.
“We rely a lot on Kat,” Bartley said of the back line, which is incorporating two new members alongside her and sophomore Kerra Williamson.
Sanchez made three saves in the second half of the Shorecrest match to preserve the tie until the Scots won with a goal in the final minute of regulation.
“Kat’s a great athlete and makes all the plays,” Davis said. “She does a lot of things instinctively really well. I think we have a long ways to go defensively in terms of maintaining our shape, but by the end of the season I think it’ll be much better back there.”
From the three seniors down to the sophomores, the Eagles have a sense of their own history in terms of wanting to leave the program better than they found it.
“I make a big deal about that,” Davis said. “Every year we want to take one step up and improve. Last year’s seniors did that and so did the year before.”
This year might be the one that culminates all of the incremental improvement Davis and his program have made.
“We definitely want to leave our mark and be the team that gets past districts and into state,” Busby said. “It’s always kind of been our dream to make that happen, and now it’s all coming together.”
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