PUYALLUP — No matter how much the Edmonds-Woodway High School boys soccer team huffed and puffed, it was unable to blow the Mercer Island goal down.
Edmonds-Woodway’s fairytale run through the 3A state tournament came to an end in the semifinals as the Warriors fell 1-0 to the Islanders on Friday afternoon at Sparks Stadium.
Edmonds-Woodway controlled stretches of the first half, then played the final 20 minutes up a man after Mercer Island had a player sent off. But in the end all of the Warriors’ efforts came up short.
“Definitely the game didn’t go to our full capabilities,” Edmonds-Woodway senior captain Ethan Hopkins said. “I’d say overall we worked hard, but not together, which kind of led to us losing.”
Austin Taylor scored the game’s only goal three minutes into the second half as Mercer Island (18-1-1) advanced to face Interlake in the state championship game.
Meanwhile Edmonds-Woodway (17-3-2), which had never advanced past the first round of the state tournament prior to this year, was consigned to the third-place game against Lakeside at 10 a.m. Saturday at Sparks Stadium.
“The disappointing point for us is I thought we were the more dangerous and better team for most of the first half, then we kind of got caught up in the long-ball thing,” Edmonds-Woodway coach Tony Gilman said. “That’s not what we needed to do. But as you could see, in the last 12 minutes were are all over them. We just couldn’t buy anything, and their goalkeeper was very good.
“They’re a good team,” Gilman added about the Islanders. “They’ve got some guys who work really hard, I’ve got to give them that. They’ve been here before, they know where they want to get to, and I can’t fault them for that.”
Following a first half in which there were few quality scoring chances for either team — though the duo of Hopkins and Jeremy Langsted did a good job of maintaining control in midfield for Edmonds-Woodway — it all went wrong for the Warriors at the start of the second half.
It was less than three minutes into the half when the Islanders broke quickly down the left. Eric Dreyer raced down the line, and just before the ball got to the end line he rolled a cross out front. Taylor, with his first touch, was able to guide the ball into the far corner to give Mercer Island a 1-0 lead.
“The goal was very typical of our team,” Mercer Island coach Colin Rigby said. “We do a really good job of trying to find the wide guys and using some speed on the outside, then trying to put balls in dangerous spots. Eric did a great job putting the ball across, Austin did a fantastic job redirecting the ball into the corner, we’ll take that all day.”
It didn’t get much better for the Warriors from there. Mercer Island took control of the game and could have added to its lead, but Jack Delay shot right at Edmonds-Woodway goalkeeper Grygoriy Lozynskyy when he had a little daylight, and Taylor chipped a shot that grazed the post after fending off a pair of defenders. The Warriors even lost a player to injury when Edwing Martinez-Galmichi was flattened as he and Islanders goalkeeper Matt Leprowse challenged for a high ball. Martinez-Galmichi didn’t return to the game, though Gilman said he thought Martinez-Galmichi was OK.
But the Warriors caught a break in the 61st minute when Dreyer’s high foot caught Edmonds-Woodway defender Njaka Jammeh in the face. Dreyer was issued his second yellow card of the game, meaning the Islanders were forced to finish out the game with just 10 players.
Edmonds-Woodway changed its formation, sending an extra player forward to press its numerical advantage. But as the Warriors sent a series of long balls into the Mercer Island penalty box, Leprowse was able to deal with them all.
“I was incredibly nervous, and we needed a huge performance from our players playing a man down and knowing it’s loser out,” Rigby said. “The effort and grit from the guys to be able to hold off for 19 minutes a man down — and with the wind right in front of us — was definitely heroic.”
At Sparks Stadium
Goals—Austin Taylor (MI). Records—Mercer Island 18-1-1, Edmonds-Woodway 17-3-2
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