Tommies bounce Monroe

Published 11:23 pm Thursday, March 17, 2011

MONROE — Marysville-Pilchuck boys soccer coach Geoff Kittle describes his team as “unsure of itself.”

That may be changing.

After opening the season with an impressive non-league win over Eastlake, the Tomahawks showed even more firepower Thursday, beating Monroe 4-1 in a Wesco 4A Nor

th season opener for both schools at Monroe High School.

Marysville-Pilchuck has outscored its two opponents 7-2 so far with a home matchup against 2010 Class 4A state runner-up Lake Stevens coming up next.

“This gives us a lot of confidence,” Kittle said. “But we have to make sure it’s appropriate and not cocky. This group was unsure of itself but they’ve really bought in to what we’re doing.”

That was clear as M-P (2-0) dominated play for most of the match, controlling possession and putting consistent pressure on Monroe (0-1).

It did take a little while before the Tomahawks found their rhythm, though. The Bearcats actually were the aggressors early on and took the lead with just under 24 minutes to play in the first half when Taylor Turner handled a cross and one-touched into the net for a 1-0 lead.

At that point, Marysville adjusted, moving senior Gustavo Jaramillo back to center defense to try to slow Monroe’s quick play-maker, Mitch Balk.

“We had to adjust for (Balk’s) speed,” Kittle said. “Gustavo went back there and did a great job.”

“We started off slow but we got into our form after we calmed down,” Jaramillo said. “After that first goal, we knew we had to pressure harder and we did that.”

Indeed they did.

With just over 10 minutes to go before halftime, senior midfielder Kevin Spiva gathered a loose ball in the box and finished into the upper left corner to tie the match. Then, five minutes later, Jaramillo came forward into the box and took a cross from junior forward Anthony Johnson, finishing hard into the net to give M-P a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

“I went down and waited for the cross,” Jaramillo said. “I didn’t realize we were playing the short stuff so much so I called really loud to Anthony and he saw me and I put it in.”

Marysville-Pilchuck didn’t let up in the second half, continually attacking as Monroe struggled to maintain possession and eventually seemed to wear down from the constant pressure the Tomahawks applied.

With 8½ minutes to go, Monroe keeper Jose Perez Jr. came out to intercept a cross but the ball bounced off his chest to a waiting Favian Panduro and the freshman eased the ball into the net for a 3-1 lead. Panduro also showed outstanding skill on the defensive end and may not continue to be the secret Kittle hopes he is for much longer.

Johnson, who had an outstanding game distributing the ball for Marysville-Pilchuck, scored his third goal of the season with a minute to play when he took advantage of a missed clearance by the Monroe defense and beat Perez Jr. one-on-one to complete the scoring.

With a first league win in the books, Marysville is free to look ahead to Tuesday’s matchup with Lake Stevens, which beat the Tomahawks twice and tied them once in 2010.

“This is a boost to our confidence but that’s going to be a hard game,” Jaramillo said. “But we just have to keep playing together like we have been.”

“Lake Stevens is a really good team and we would love to beat them since we didn’t do it last year,” Kittle said. “I think if we keep playing together as a team, we’re going to be fine.”