SHORELINE — The Glacier Peak boys soccer team not only finished the regular season with an undefeated league record, the Grizzlies did it without ever trailing in a game, making them the overwhelming favorite to win the 3A district 1 championship.
After Edmonds-Woodway’s 2-0 win over the Grizzlies in Saturday’s championship game, the Grizzlies will have to settle for second place.
“It’s been since 2003 since we won the district title and the last time we lost to them 2-0, so it’s nice to flip it around the other way because they’re a very good team,” Edmonds-Woodway head coach Tony Gilman said. “We were able to withstand their pressure, which was scary at times. We saw some things that we now need to work on Monday.”
With the win, the Warriors will host Auburn Riverside in the first round of the state tournament at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at Edmonds Stadium.
Junior Lucas Teklemariam gave Edmonds-Woodway the lead in the 13th minute, scoring off a deflection.
“We got that first goal and they changed a few minutes later to a 3-4 (formation),” said Edmonds-Woodway head coach Tony Gilman. “So we knew we were affecting their play, which is kind of what you want to do.”
Glacier Peak had multiple chances late in the first half and early in the second to get an equalizer, but the defense and senior goalkeeper Grygoriy Lozynskyy stopped every opportunity the Grizzlies had.
The Warriors increased their lead in the 59th minute when junior Kyle Aure lobbed a 20-yard shot over Glacier Peak’s senior goalkeeper Sahm Noorfeshan from the right side of the field. Several Grizzlies’ defenders tried to save the ball as it rolled slowly toward the goal, but they were too late and the Warriors increased their lead to 2-0.
“It was huge because one goal is nothing in a soccer game,” Aure said. “Two goals is still not that good, but it definitely secured the win and put them on their toes.”
It looked as though Aure was trying to pass the ball over Noorfeshan to himself, but he said after the game the lob shot was the plan all along.
“I meant to chip it over him,” Aure said. “That was the plan, I wasn’t trying to pass it to myself. I’ve been doing it since I was a kid.”
Glacier Peak had at least two legitimate scoring chances in the final 10 minutes of the game, but came up empty both times.
“We played really poor and didn’t finish our chances,” Glacier Peak head coach Kyle Veach said. “I’d give more credit to Woodway than I would blame ourselves.”
After not trailing in a game since a non-league loss to Skyline on March 23 and giving up only one goal in their 12 league games, Veach said the Grizzlies were disappointed not to win the district title, but hoped they would learn from the defeat.
“We didn’t play well and they did,” Veach said. “They took advantage of some opportunities and scored some great goals. I think it more has to do with Woodway’s preparation and maybe we just started thinking we were untouchable. Maybe we got ahead of ourselves a little bit and thought we could just handle anybody. This is a good experience. This is a good thing.”
The Grizzlies will open the state playoffs against Capital early this week. The time and day are yet to be determined.
At Shoreline Stadium
Goals—Lucas Teklemariam (E-W), Kyle Aure (E-W). Records—Edmonds-Woodway 15-2-2 overall. Glacier Peak 15-4-0.
Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on Twitter at @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.
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