Last weekend I found myself at a rainy Goddard Stadium in south Everett, covering the District 1 high school boys soccer game between the Snohomish Panthers and Cascade Bruins. As Cascade, trailing 2-1 late in the game, sent a stream of long throw-ins into the Snohomish penalty box in a frantic effort to find the tying goal, one thought passed through my mind:
I’ve had a front-row seat for the genesis of a fundamental change in Washington high school boys soccer.
Ever since returning to the Herald 13 years ago, I’ve sort of been our de facto prep boys soccer beat writer. I’ve never technically been a prep reporter, but the primary teams I covered — currently the Seattle Seahawks, the previous 12 years the Everett Silvertips — were wrapped up by the time May rolled around. Being a soccer guy, that meant getting sent out to cover prep soccer playoffs.
Therefore, this time last year I was busy following Snohomish’s march to its second straight 4A state championship. Though they pulled off the historic feat of winning back-to-back titles, in truth the Panthers were no more skilled than the other teams they faced.
But Snohomish had a secret weapon, and his name was Blake Crutchfield.
Crutchfield was an excellent high school player, someone who was named All-Wesco both as a defender and a midfielder. But what made Crutchfield truly unique were his long throw-ins.
For three years Crutchfield’s long throw-ins were Snohomish’s most dangerous offensive weapon. Any time the Panthers had a throw-in in the final third of the field, Crutchfield would saunter over to take the throw, and he’d proceed to launch the ball straight toward the goal mouth, creating all kinds of havoc for the opposing defense and goalkeeper.
It was a revolutionary tactic, and it worked. In last year’s 3-1 victory over Central Valley in the state championship game, all three of Snohomish’s goals came as a direct result of Crutchfield’s throws.
“Blake has completely changed the game of soccer in Washington state,” Crutchfield’s teammate, Gus Baxter, said in the wake of winning last year’s title. “Ever since he was a freshman, once everybody saw his long throws they’ve been training their own teammates to try and mimic his long throws.”
Baxter nailed it.
During these past 13 years, by far the biggest change I’ve seen in high school boys soccer has been the prevalence of the long throw-in.
When Crutchfield arrived at Snohomish, long throw-ins were about as common as goals scored by goalkeepers. The only times teams put long throw-ins into the opposing penalty box were those rare occasions when a team unearthed an acrobat capable of executing the front-handspring flip throw.
That changed starting with Crutchfield’s freshman season in 2011. Crutchfield was this little kid who inexplicably found the strength in his skinny arms to hurl the ball 30 yards down the field. But it wasn’t until the following year as a sophomore that his throws became a dedicated part of Snohomish’s game plan.
The result? During the past three seasons I witnessed Snohomish score goals by heading in Crutchfield’s throws, goals by cleaning up the garbage in front when Crutchfield’s throws dropped to the turf, even goals when goalkeepers made the mistake of getting a fingertip to Crutchfield’s throws that flew directly into the goal.
When Crutchfield was a sophomore, what he was doing was unique. By the time he graduated last year, just about every good team I watched had a designated long thrower who, while not as effective as Crutchfield, at least tried to emulate his throws. Spencer Bowlden had that job for Cascade last weekend, Ryan Henderson does the duty for Archbishop Murphy. I even recall Kamiak going through period where it made substitutions every time it got a throw-in deep in opposition territory, just to get its designated long thrower into the game.
It was Bowlden’s barrage that Snohomish survived last weekend to earn a berth to the 4A state tournament — an odd reversal of roles from the previous three seasons.
“That’s what we used to do, I don’t like having it done to me,” Snohomish coach Dan Pingrey admitted with a chuckle. “Those balls put pressure on you constantly.”
Said Cascade coach Sam Croft: “(Bowlden’s throws) are better than a corner because Spencer can control where it’s going.”
Five years ago that tactic didn’t exist. Now it’s everywhere.
The rise of the long throw-in is a good thing if you like scoring. There’s no question that an effective long throw-in increases a team’s expected goals rate. I have to think Crutchfield’s long throws were worth a goal a game for Snohomish.
The trade off is it slows the game down. Soccer is a game of flow, and any time there’s a set piece that flow is disrupted. With the long throw-in, it means there’s far more times when there’s a pause in the action as teams send players forward in anticipation of a goal-mouth opportunity.
But like it or not, it’s here to stay.
There’s no shortage of local teams that will be playing in next weekend’s state semifinals — Snohomish in 4A, Edmonds-Woodway in 3A, Archbishop Murphy in 2A. So if you happen to find yourself at Sparks Stadium in Puyallup or Sunset Chev Stadium in Sumner, be prepared to see your share of long throw-ins.
And when you do, know that it all started here with Blake Crutchfield.
Check out Nick Patterson’s Seattle Sidelines blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/seattlesidelines, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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