Both sides are the home team at final high school soccer match

There was no way La Conner wouldn’t win its soccer match at Whittaker Field last Wednesday.

But the question afterward was which of the two teams the Braves or Lady Braves won the impromptu home finale match.

A paper tally, including post-game penalty kicks, had the Braves posting an 11-4 triumph.

The scoreboard told a different story. It indicated the Lady Braves had recorded a lopsided 50-11 victory.

“Look, we won!” exclaimed a member of the girls’ team, who recorded the electronic final score with her phone camera.

The afternoon pairing was the definition of a soccer friendly, an exhibition game with no bearing on won-loss standings.

“The girls hadn’t had a home game since the beginning of October,” Lady Braves head coach Maddie Huscher told the Weekly News prior to the start, “and they wanted to play one more home game. So, they asked the boys’ team if they would play a match.”

The Braves and head coach Galen McKnight were game.

The contest began innocently enough with Lady Braves goalkeeper Olive Klinger making several nice saves before Reuben Hall, displaying nifty footwork throughout, found the net with a header seven minutes into the first half.

Then the rule book was cast aside. Kim Williams of the Lady Braves advanced the ball up the pitch by stuffing it under her jersey and running several yards before being stopped with a soft tackle.

McKnight, meanwhile, turned over coaching duties to Braves’ team captains and assumed duties as a side judge. That didn’t go unnoticed by Huscher.

“I think they have to forfeit,” she suggested.

With the boys’ team leading 5-0 at intermission, Huscher pulled out all the stops. She recruited a couple “transfers” in Braves’ alums Isa Gonzales-Rojas and Finn Hakenson and donned a jersey herself for second half action.

With Huscher in the lineup, Kellie Cayou-Lockrem took over coaching duties; her team fared well in the penalty kick round with Kendall Lee, Kailey Carlson and Iris Turner scoring. But it was too little to offset Braves’ penalty kicks delivered by Hall, Simon Bouwens, Hadden Zimmerman, Sammy Williams and Corran Eisen.

Or was it?

Moments after the penalty kick period concluded, the scoreboard showed a Lady Braves’ 50-11 final score.

And it’s the result that will appear forever in cyberspace.

McKnight sought the high road. He was already looking to the Braves’ season finale at Cedar Park Christian the following afternoon. The team wrapped up its season winning 1-0, on the road in Bothell Oct. 26. The Braves went 2-6 in NW2B/1B matches and were 3-11 overall.

“We’ve shown we can play with anybody,” McKnight said. “We’ve had a lot of very close losses.”