Even though it was weeks ago, soccer standout Donnya Kvinge still has strong memories of the Mountlake Terrace Hawks’ final home match of the 2015 season— for both good and bad reasons.

The Oct. 20 matchup between the prep soccer rivals Terrace and Edmonds-Woodway ended with the Warriors getting a 4-1 victory over the Hawks and Kvinge getting carted off the field and taken to Swedish Edmonds Hospital due to a nasty injury.

With about 12 minutes to go in the game, Kvinge collided with an Edmonds-Woodway player at midfield. Kvinge immediately fell to the ground, grabbing her left calf and sobbing in pain.

“I went to extend my leg to get (a pass) and she came cleats up and kind of just took out my calf,” Kvinge recalled of the incident.

After a long delay to treat Kvinge and get her into an aid car, both coaches agreed to end the match at that point. The Hawks went on with a short Senior Night ceremony to honor Claire Zucker, the one and only senior on the squad, but it was a subdued celebration out of concern for Kvinge.

“I just hope Donnya is going to be okay,” Zucker said at the time.

The injury Kvinge suffered did end up being not as severe as had originally feared. “Basically I just had really deep eternal leg bruising on my bone and some bleeding,” Kvinge explained. “Nothing got broken and nothing got strained.”

Kvinge was forced onto crutches for the weeks following the injury, but is now walking — and even running — again. “I have run on it a few times and it’s sore, but I can work through it,” she said.

For the Terrace sophomore, overcoming the injury and getting back to a regular training regiment was never in question. Kvinge not only has been in the Hawk girls soccer varsity starting lineup both her freshman and sophomore years, but she plays the rest of the calendar year with the Crossfire Premiere Soccer Club out of Redmond.

“I live and breathe soccer,” she said with a smile.

Kvinge has been playing the game for years and has scored numerous times. But a goal that she will likely never forget came in the same match against Edmonds-Woodway that she was injured in.

Early in the first half, Kvinge lined up a free kick less than 10 yards from the Edmonds-Woodway end line and just a few steps from the side line. With the Warrior goal almost 30 yards away, and at such a sharp angle, going for goal directly from the free kick would be nearly impossible.

“I wanted to get it as close to the goal as possible,” Kvinge said of the free kick. “And when I take free kicks I like to aim for (teammate) Maddie Powers because she’s usually in the area of the goal. We kind of have a thing planned out where I try to hit her head.”

On the free kick, Powers rushed to the near post, but Kvinge’s kick sailed far over her head, and over the head of Sammy Ruiz who was running goal ward from the penalty kick spot.

“I don’t really know what happened that time; I was aiming back post and I guess I hit the back post,” Kvinge recalled.

Kvinge’s free kick traveled more than 30 yards in the air, over the extended arms of Warrior goalkeeper Hannah Hicks, clanked off the far post just below the crossbar and into the goal.

“I was a tad bit in shock,” Kvinge said.

The score put Terrace ahead of the defending 3A state champions Edmonds-Woodway 1-0 in a match the Hawks needed to win in order to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Terrace would go on to lose the match — and fail to earn a postseason berth — but Kvinge’s goal will be remembered a long time.

“It’s definitely a memorable goal,” Kvinge admitted.

Now knowing the injury won’t slow down her soccer future, Kvinge is looking forward to many more years of playing, even beyond the high school level. “I want to go to a four-year university,” the defender/midfielder said, “somewhere in California under scholarship to play soccer.”

Hawk soccer fans are hoping to see many more memorable Kvinge goals over the next two years before the talented sophomore goes on to the collegiate level.

— Story and photos by Doug Petrowski