SNOHOMISH — It may have been the Snohomish boys soccer team’s second game of the season, but the way the Panthers executed on their set pieces in a 3-2 victory over Glacier Peak on Friday, it looked like it was time for them to start this year’s 4A state tournament and defend their championship.
Junior forward Jason Fairhurst scored two goals, both headers off of free kicks taken by senior Eric Jones to lead the Panthers to a comeback win over the Grizzlies.
“Our job is to get better,” Snohomish head coach Dan Pingrey said. “These practice games are for that. We have a completely new group. They know what the expectations are. This was great for us, and for them more important, to see that they can come back from that, stay focused and do what we asked them to do.”
The Grizzlies held a 2-0 lead at halftime thanks to a goal apiece from sophomores Keegan Rubio and Daniel Guerrero, but the Panthers came out the aggressor in the second half. Fairhurst scored the Panthers’ first goal in the 56th minute. A little more than three minutes later, junior Logan Stapleton tied the game by beating Glacier Peak goalkeeper Sahm Noorfeshan.
The score remained tied until Jones delivered the pass to Fairhurst on a free kick, which the junior headed in for the game-winner.
“We’re excited because we know we can get a lot of things out of (our set pieces) and really we’ve just been scratching the surface,” Pingrey said. “We recognize it and we’ve been starting to work on it. Our corners are just that close. We scored a couple last week. We know we’re pretty good at it. Our service on all of them are good and Eric’s are fantastic. Now we just have to develop something out of it and be a little less predictable.”
Fairhurst didn’t have his best first half, but Pingrey was pleased with how he responded after halftime.
“Jason is another one of those guys to watch just like Eric Jones is,” Pingrey said. “All that being said, and I think if you asked Jason too, Jason did not have his ‘A’ game. At halftime I said, ‘OK, Jason you don’t have your ‘A’ game tonight, so you have to work harder to find the ball.’ His first half wasn’t that good. He comes up to me afterward and said, ‘Good turnaround?’ Yeah, it was a good turnaround.”
While the Panthers picked up their first win of the season, the Grizzlies fell to 0-2, but head coach Kyle Veach isn’t concerned.
“We scheduled Issaquah, Snohomish and Skyline specifically because they’re some of the best teams in 4A,” Veach said. “If we come out of preseason 0-3 after those games, we don’t care. It’s a test. We’re here to get better and to get ready for the regular season.”
Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on Twitter at @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.
At Veterans Memorial Stadium
Goals—Keegan Rubio (GP), Daniel Guerrero (GP), Jason Fairhurst (S) 2, Logan Stapleton (S). Records—Glacier Peak 0-2-0. Snohomish 1-0-1.
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