It’s disheartening to be one of the best Class 2A girls soccer squads in the state all season long, earn the right to host a quarterfinal state tournament game on your home turf and then lose 1-0 in the game’s waning minutes.

But for a still wet-behind-the-ears Sumner High squad, that is precisely how its season was abruptly terminated on a gloomy Saturday afternoon at Sunset Chev Stadium.

Sehome High scored a putback goal with a little more than three minutes remaining to oust the Spartans and move on to Friday’s semifinal tilt against Archbishop Murphy at Puyallup’s Sparks Stadium.

“Although I didn’t say anything to anyone when Sehome tallied that goal with very little time left, I knew in my heart at that moment, that the game was over,” admitted Sumner coach Robi Turley, who completed her ninth year at the helm for the purple and gold.

Sehome capitalized on a Spartan defensive mistake, then stalled out the last few minutes to clinch the victory.

The Spartans were able to slow down a Sehome team that boasts what their coach calls a three-headed scoring monster, or trio of girls who scored 20 goals apiece during the regular season. Sehome had been averaging six goals per game and scored nearly 70 goals during the regular season.

Sumner finished with a 16-3-0 mark, having lost only to Bonney Lake, White River and Sehome, all three of which are still alive in late November’s state tournament picture.

It was disappointing to lose the game in that fashion,” Turley said. “But it is like I told the girls in the locker room afterwards, there is only one state champion. So, unless you are the team that hangs that pennant in your gym, you are going to have to suffer through a defeat somewhere along the line. It’s not fun. That’s just the way it is.”

Three-fourths of the Sumner squad is expected to return next year, with the list headed by goalkeeper Alex Hoyt and striker Kaylie Rozell, who recently earned South Puget Sound League 2A Most Valuable Player accolades.