PORT ANGELES — There’s a French phrase, “faire quelque avec classe,” that roughly translates to mean that it is better to lose with flair and passion than it is to win with brute force or poor sportsmanship.
Port Angeles’ Kennedy Rognlien embodied that sentiment this season, as she had her most spectacular performance during a rare loss in a wildly successful Port Angeles girls soccer season.
Port Angeles lost to Hockinson 1-0 in a state playoff game played in Vancouver. Hockinson largely dominated the game, peppering the Port Angeles goal with shot after shot. Rognlien ended up making 16 saves in that match, several of them spectacular, diving to her left and to her right and leaping high to knock one shot over the crossbar. She even made one save with the toe of her foot much like a hockey goaltender. The one shot that got past her, she managed to get a foot on, but it just squeezed past her.
Coach Daniel Horton said, “I told her after the game that was probably the most impressive individual performance I had ever seen out of a high school athlete.”
It was her final match for the Riders and capped off an amazing season that prompted the Peninsula Daily News sports to name Rognlien the All-Peninsula girls soccer MVP. It was a close competition between Rognlien and her teammate Emma Desjardins, who likewise had a spectacular season and set records for the Roughriders.
That Hockinson game didn’t fully definite Rognlien’s amazing season and career. She allowed just 10 goals all season, had 12 shutouts and finished her career with 27 shutouts in goal. All Roughrider records.
Rognlien, who is also an outstanding softball player who will surely make the All-Olympic softball team later this year, didn’t even play goalkeeper her freshman year, playing on the team’s defense while waiting for her turn in goal. She has been playing goalkeeper since she was 8 years old.
Rognlien, who also plays for the fledgling girls flag football team along with many of her soccer teammates, has been accepted to Western Washington University. She will continue to play club sports while attending WWU but will focus primarily on her studies. She is interested in majoring either in environmental science or biochemistry.
Rognlien said she thinks she took a big leap in confidence and leadership in her senior year.
“Being a goalkeeper is kind of stressful because you feel the game is on you,” she said. She spoke out more loudly on the field this year, helping her teammates get in position.
“I owe it all to coaches and my teammates,” she said. “Without a good defense, I couldn’t have had the kind of season I did.”
Though her game at Hockinson was legendary, Rognlien said she didn’t feel a moral victory. She was devastated afterward because it was her final game for the Riders.
“I played my heart out. I left it all on the field. It was the last time I was going to play with my teammates. I’m grateful for all the opportunities I had with them,” she said.
Full All-Peninsula Team
Kennedy Rognlien, goalkeeper, Port Angeles.
Rognlien was named the co-defensive MVP of the Olympic League. She allowed just 10 goals all season and had 12 shutouts, setting a school record. She also finished her career with 27 shutouts. She also allowed just two goals in four postseason games and had an amazing 16 saves in the Roughriders’ state playoff 1-0 loss to Hockinson.
Emma Desjardins, Port Angeles.
Desjardins could have easily been the All-Pen MVP with the numbers she put up. She broke Millie Long’s freshman record by scoring 21 goals as a freshman for the Roughriders and added seven assists. Her best goal may have been a playoff score in which she had her back to the goal, and flicked the ball off her ankle over her head, lobbing the ball high into the opponents’ net over the goalkeeper’s outstretched arms.She made the all-Olympic League first team.
Mariah Traband, Port Angeles.
Traband is another first teamer on the all-Olympic League. Traband provided a formidable one-two scoring punch with Desjardins with 10 goals and 11 assists.
Becca Manson, Port Angeles.
Manson, a key defensive midfielder for the Riders, also scored six goals and five assists and made the all-Olympic first team.
Pyper Alton, Port Angeles.
Alton led the Roughriders in assists with 11 and was the team’s corner kick and free kick specialist. She had three assists off corners in one game.
Raimey Brewer, Sequim.
Brewer made the first-team All-Olympic squad for the second straight year. She set a school record with 38 career assists, including 13 this season. A senior, she finished third all-time in points for the Wolves with 78, behind Brittany Gates (82) and her cousin Taryn Johnson (183).
Kiley Winter, Sequim.
Winter made first-team All-Olympic. Had seven goals and six assists and is 10th all-time in points in Sequim’s history with 38.
Ruby Moxley-Horgan, Sequim.
Moxley-Horgan terrorized teams with her speed and led the Wolves with 11 goals and made the second-team All-Olympic squad.
Jade Blair, Forks.
Blair had a spectacular offensive season at times, scoring 10 goals against Winlock, six against East Jefferson and three against South Bend. She was named an honorable mention on the all-Central 2B Soccer Team.
Teri Wiley, East Jefferson.
Wiley made the all-Nisqually League for her defense. Coach Robert Cantley praised her physicality.
Honorable mentions.
Teanna Clark, Port Angeles, and Cayleigh Alward, Port Angeles were both big parts of the Riders’ powerful defense.
Olive Bridge, Sequim; Macy Little, EJ; Gracie Witheridge, EJ; Lila Morgan (goalkeeper), EJ; Pearl Salazar (goalkeeper), Forks.
