EDMONDS — No one thought that the Marysville Getchell girls soccer team had a chance in the first round of the 3A district playoffs against Meadowdale.
No one thought MG had a chance except of course the Chargers and coach Wayne Nash.
“We knew last time that we only lost by a goal to them,” Nash said. “So we knew that we just needed to stay in our formation longer and play a little harder and we could beat them.”
The team making it’s first-ever trip to the playoffs had to travel Saturday afternoon to undefeated and untied Meadowdale, ranked No. 1 in the state. For many, the game was an afterthought on the opening weekend of the district playoffs.
Despite that, the Chargers came as close any team has all season — as close as possible — to putting a blemish on the Mav’s record, dropping the game 3-2 after five rounds of penalty kicks, a scoreless regulation and two overtimes.
It might be tempting to even call the loss a disappointment for the Chargers since they opened the penalty kicks with a 2-0 edge thanks to a pair of Meadowdale attempts that were completely off the frame.
But Nash wasn’t the slightest bit bothered after watching the Mavs rush to congratulate their keeper Ashley Routh, who after giving up the first two Charger goals made a save and watched the next two shots go wide left.
“I’m proud of them.” Nash said. “I couldn’t be more proud. I feel like we did everything that we set out to do. We accomplished our goals.”
Relief and exasperation were the words that best described the Meadowdale sideline. Despite the lack of scoring, the Mavs controlled the possession and massively outshot the Chargers. Goalie Samantha Wallace was far and away the MG MVP.
“We couldn’t get the ball to go in today,” Mavs coach Wade Foley said. “We must have had 20 shots, a couple open opportunities, one-on-ones with the keeper. I don’t know how many balls we put on the keepers hands. She did a great job for them today.”
Foley’s own keeper saved the day in the end.
“Ashley’s done great for us all season,” Foley said. “She made one save and fortunately they missed two of their own.”
Both Foley and Nash thought nerves and inexperience were the culprit for the final three Charger penalty shooters who all had a chance to either win or extend the game.
“We have some young girls, not a lot of them have been in that position before where they have to make one to win it. It’s a great experience for them,” Nash said. “The monkey’s off our back in the first game. We should be able to step up and do that much better.”
With Meadowdale and Everett still favored to take the top two spots, Nash believes that this experience shows his team can be the third 3A team from the district to advance to the state playoffs.
“If we can do this to Meadowdale, we can do it to anybody,” Nash said. “And that’s exactly what I said to (my team), so there’s no reason that we shouldn’t be the third place team to come out of this bracket.”
Meadowdale advances in the winners bracket to play Stanwood Tuesday at Shoreline Stadium in the district semifinal. MG will travel to Ferndale in a loser-out contest and will need to win three straight to advance to state.
At Edmonds Stadium.
Goals—None. Assists—None. Goalkeepers—Marysville Getchell: Samantha Wallace. Meadowdale: Ashley Routh. Records—Marysville Getchell 6-8-4 overall, Meadowdale 17-0
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