Overtime goal sends Kamiak to state

Published 11:07 pm Tuesday, May 12, 2009

MUKILTEO — Every time Kamiak scored, Snohomish had an answer.

In overtime, however, when the first team to score wins, the Panthers didn’t have a chance to strike back, because Clayton Dubin’s second goal of the game ended Snohomish’s night while giving Kamiak a 4-3 victory in the Class 4A District 1 boys soccer semifinals.

Kamiak (10-7) earned a berth to state with the win, and will play Marysville-Pilchuck in Saturday’s 1 p.m. district championship game. Snohomish (12-4-1) hosts Edmonds-Woodway Thursday in a loser-out game. The Panthers will need to win that game and another one Saturday to earn an 11th straight state tournament berth.

While Snohomish has been a regular at state this decade, the state tournament hardly seemed like a likely destination for the Knights early this season. Kamiak went just 2-5 in non-league play to start the season, but bounced back to win its first six conference games.

“We came from 2-5 in preseason, and now going to state,” said Dubin, who also scored in the first half to give Kamiak a 1-0 lead. “No one thought we could do it, but we did it … This team stuck with it through everything. To come back and go to state out of nowhere, it’s amazing. We’re a family and we stuck together, that’s the thing. It’s not about any one of us, it’s about all of us as a team.”

After Dubin put the Knights ahead nine minutes into the game, Connor Moe answered for Snohomish less than eight minutes later, setting up the theme for the night. Whenever it seemed like Kamiak might put the game away, the Panthers quickly tied it.

Eleven minutes into the second half, Bryton Reim headed in a cross by Andreas Schilbach to give the Knights a 2-1 lead. Three minutes later, however, the game was tied again when Snohomish sophomore Daryn English knocked in a loose ball that was bobbled by Kamiak goalkeeper Caleb Smith.

Reim struck again late in the game, scoring from the top of the box to make it 3-2 with 5:39 remaining in the game. Alas, that lead was short-lived as well, as Carson Pingrey hammered in the tying goal with just two minutes to play in the game.

“I thought all of them were game winners,” Reim said. “When two amazing teams play, you don’t see a score like 4-3; you see a score like 1-0. So I thought that first goal was the game winner.”

The game-winner finally came in overtime when Snohomish didn’t have the chance to strike back. Snohomish’s defense failed to clear a cross from English in the third minute of overtime, and the ball rolled to the feet of Dubin, who hit a hard left-footed shot into the lower right corner of the net from 20-yards out.

“It’s the same thing on shots every time, people are getting lazy and not getting back and goals got scored,” a frustrated Snohomish coach Dan Pingrey said. “Every single time, and that’s about it.”

And unlike the earlier Kamiak goals, Snohomish didn’t get a chance to recover from its final mistake.

“They fought back valiantly, and that’s why it was such a fun game,” Dubin said. “You don’t see games like this ever. These are once in a lifetime kind of games and you dream of playing in games like this.”