Puyallup hangs on against Auburn

On a night when Auburn just wouldn't go away, Puyallup hung on to defeat the Trojans, 18-12, to tighten its grip on first place in the Puget Sound East Division.
With top scorer Haley Carroll stuggling with her shot, the Vikings had to rely on the scoring outbursts of Kim Akiona and Joanna Boschee' to defeat a physical and stubborn Auburn squad Wednesday night. The win moved Puyallup to a perfect 9-0 league slate and 13-0 overall. But this win didn't come easy as Puyallup struggled to find the blue early on, hitting the cross bar several times and coming up empty. Auburn was a more physical team Wednesday and that threw Puyallup off its normal fast break, finesse game. Three Akiona goals and two from Boschee', who turned in her second strong game in a row, kept the Viks in the game, 6-2, after one quarter. Auburn outscored Puyallup 5-4 in the second quarter to pull within 10-7 at the half. Plagued by bad passing and lack of patience most of the night, Puyallup seemed to recover in the third quarter as Carroll got untracked with three scores, with one of those goals somehow weaving its way through three sets of upraised hands for a score, and Akiona scored another coming off a screen by Katie Kindle and receiving a quick pass from Katie Hayes. The seven to one scoring run put Puyallup up comfortably, 17-8. In the fourth quarter though, Auburn turned up the defense and turned fastbreaks into points, outscoring Puyallup, 4-1 in the fourth. But it was too little, too late, and the Vikings swam away with league win number nine and scored their first win over Auburn at home in five years.