BOTHELL — The Shorewood boys soccer team came into Friday night’s Wesco 3A boys soccer team as the team with the best shot at catching Glacier Peak for the league championship.
That task just got a whole lot harder.
The Thunderbirds dropped just their second league game this season, falling to Lynnwood 2-1. The loss hurt Shorewood’s chances of catching the Grizzlies, but dramatically improved the Royals chances of finishing second in the league, which would mean a home game in the first round and avoiding the No. 1 seed until the district championship should both teams win their first two games.
“We’re all fighting for that second place spot, but this puts us in a good spot,” Lynnwood head coach Pablo Mummey said.
The Royals were the aggressors early in the game and it paid off with a goal by senior Eddie DeJesus-Neri less than five minutes into the game.
“That was the idea,” Mummey said. “We have a couple of certain plays that we do in order to gain possession of the ball right away and try to jump on quick goal and lucky for us we were able to do that tonight.”
Shorewood answered back with a quick goal of its own. Junior Kyan Feller scored in the 10th minute with a left-to-right dribble and shot from 20 yards out that Lynnwood’s sophomore goalkeeper Tyler Stull had no chance of saving.
It was the only goal allowed by Stull.
“Tyler has kept us in some really good games,” Mummey said. “We’re not always the best defensive team, but he’s kept us in games.”
The Royals regained the lead — this time for good — in the 18th minute when junior forward Dane Evanger got behind Shorewood’s senior goalkeeper Isaac Whitaker for an uncontested goal.
“I think it was a deflection that kind of went off the keeper and somehow the ball ended up close to him and he was able to turn around and put it in the back of the net,” Mummey said. “He does a really good job at that. He’s great at locating that net immediately and he knows what to do.”
Though there was still more than 60 minutes of soccer to play, Evanger’s goal proved to be the game-winner as neither team scored the rest of the way.
The way the game had gone, Evanger didn’t expect his goal would be the last.
“I definitely thought there was going to be more goals scored,” Evanger said. “We had many chances. I missed a couple. We should have put more on them, but we pulled out the win.”
Though it turned out the Royals didn’t need it, Evanger had a chance to put the game away in the 71st minute on a breakaway, but what appeared to be a sure goal was saved by Whitaker.
“It was really disappointing because it could’ve put the game away,” Evanger said. “I just miss-hit it and put it at the keeper. He made a great save and I had to move on.”
Though Whitaker allowed two goals, the Royals had other opportunities and in large part he kept the Thunderbirds in the game.
“Isaac has really stepped his game up,” Shorewood head coach Bill Wilkins said. “He saved a penalty kick in the last game and he has really taken charge of the box. I like them to be kind of like a King and that’s his country and this is what’s going to happen in (their) land. He really took charge. He dove on two balls before guys had a chance to shoot them and then he deflected the one on the breakaway. It’s been really great to see his rise up here these last three games.”
Shorewood can still catch Glacier Peak for a share of the league championship, but they will need to beat the Grizzlies on Monday and then beat Stanwood on Wednesday and have the Grizzlies lose to Everett that same day.
Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on Twitter at @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.
At Lynnwood H.S.
Goals — Eddie DeJesus-Neri (L), Dane Evanger (L), Kyan Feller (S). Records — Shorewood 8-2-0 league, 10-2-2 overall. Lynnwood 7-1-2, 9-2-3.
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