MERCER ISLAND — This year’s most improbable postseason soccer story came to an end near the shores of Lake Washington Tuesday night as Mountlake Terrace fell 3-0 to Mercer Island in the first round of the 3A state soccer tournament.
“I honestly thought we were a year away from getting to state and we just went on this nice run this year,” Hawks coach George Dremousis said. “We have this whole core group back, and we played six freshmen tonight against a team that had 12 seniors.”
What a run it was.
As the seventh-seeded team in the eight-team 3A District 1 tournament field, Mountlake Terrace was a long shot to advance. But after falling to eventual district champion Edmonds-Woodway in the tournament opener, the Hawks won three straight loser-out games against higher-seeded teams to reach the state tournament for the first time since 1994.
“When we lost to (Edmonds-Woodway) everyone was so disappointed and so down because of the rough path we had to take through the consolation bracket,” said Hawks defender Sam Polveroy. “Then slowly but surely we beat Ferndale and we were still down. Then we played Shorewood and we were like, ‘One game away.’”
The Hawks beat Shorewood and then Marysville Pilchuck. MLT’s reward? A first-round matchup with KingCo regular-season champion Mercer Island.
It proved too big a task. KingCo MVP Eric Dreyer scored a first-half goal and Austin Taylor scored twice in the second half as the Islanders broke open what was a tight contest for much of the opening half.
The Hawks suffered a devastating blow when they lost midfielder Gavin Scott to injury in the first half and had to shuffle some players around.
“They had a lot of talented players in the midfield and we just didn’t have an answer for them,” Dremousis said. “I don’t play a real deep rotation. We moved a couple guys to center mid that hadn’t played center mid and it really hurt us.”
Though the Islanders controlled most of the possession in the first half, they failed to capitalize until Dreyer put the Islanders on the board with some deft footwork in the 26th minute.
After taking a feed from Noah Talerman, Dreyer dribbled his way through several Hawks defenders to set himself up from just inside the 18-yard box. Dreyer unloaded past MLT goalie Genaro Ruiz for the 1-0 advantage.
That was the first goal surrendered by the Hawks since the district tournament opener.
Ruiz was the main reason it remained 1-0 at halftime. He made a pair of point-blank saves in quick succession in the 15th minute, and Mercer Island also knocked a volley over the goal a minute later.
“Genaro is a quality goalkeeper,” Dremousis said. “He comes up big every game. He’s done it all year. He’s very, very talented.”
Mercer Island added its second goal in the 48th minute. The ball was played through to Austin Taylor, whose shot bounced off the left post. That was no problem as Taylor was there to clean up his miss and find the back of the net for a 2-0 Islander lead.
Taylor added his second goal 10 minutes later.
Mountlake Terrace (8-9-4) graduates just two players from this year’s team in Austin Burton and Derek Rajah.
“At the end of the game, when I was in the circle with the boys, I said, ‘You should be proud of how far we got, disappointed with how we lost, but stay hungry,’” Polveroy said. “We’ll be back next year better than ever.”
At Mercer Island H.S.
Goals—Eric Dreyer (MI), Austin Taylor (MI) 2. Records—Mountlake Terrace 8-9-4 overall. Mercer Island 16-1-1.
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