Glacier Peak advances

Published 11:13 pm Tuesday, May 17, 2011

SNOHOMISH — For most of Tuesday night’s game, Glacier Peak was frustrated in its bid to solve the O’Dea defense. And with the clock winding down in the second half, the Grizzlies were running out of chances.

But with about one minute to play, and in perhaps their last good scoring opportunit

y of regulation, the Grizzlies finally got the goal they needed.

A long shot by Glacier Peak’s Kyle Bjornethun was not handled cleanly by O’Dea goalkeeper Joe Bradley and Grizzlies senior forward Shane Miller gathered the loose ball by the right goal post. His shot across the goal and into the far left side of the net lifted Glacier Peak to a 1-0 victory in a Class 3A first-round state soccer tournament at Snohomish Veterans Memorial Stadium.

“Obviously the only thing I was thinking was, ‘We need a goal,'” Miller said. “I saw the keeper drop it and I ran after it as quick as I could. I saw the open goal and just buried it.

“I had to make the chance (because) we didn’t want to go to overtime. We just got lucky at the very end of the game. … I wish we could’ve played better soccer and won 3-0 or 4-0, but I’ll take a goal at the very end of the game.”

The play was set up by the Grizzlies winning a ball in the midfield, said coach Shannon Murray. The ball was advanced to Bjornethun, who is “one of our best attacking players. … He had some space and got into that space well, and Kyle strikes the ball as well anyone around.”

The Grizzlies had players going to the goal in case the ball came free, “and, sure enough, (Bradley) spilled it for us,” Murray said. “And Shane was there and finished it well.”

The win, which improved Glacier Peak’s season record to 19-1, moves the Grizzlies into the state quarterfinals. Glacier Peak, the defending Class 3A state champions, plays Lakeside either on Friday night or Saturday afternoon, again at Snohomish.

Against O’Dea, the Grizzlies sputtered offensively much of the night. Some of that was O’Dea, of course, as the Fighting Irish put up a spirited battle.

“They played a pretty good game,” Miller said. “And I’d say we got lucky at the end. We didn’t put away our (earlier) chances and they could’ve put away their chances and it would’ve been a completely different game.”

“I think there were some nerves on our group, to be honest with you,” Murray acknowledged. “It’s a loser-out game and we’re in a spot where — and this is the part we’ve been talking about all year — the target on your back is really big.”

But with the game on the line in the second half, the Grizzlies become more assertive and took advantage of their “playoff experience,” according to Murray.

“As games wear on, we know it’s a full match,” he said. “It’s not what happens in the first half, it’s not what happens in the second half, it’s about how you finish the full 80 minutes.”

Though the Grizzlies sputtered offensively much of the night, senior goalkeeper Andrew Weakly, one of the state’s best, helped keep his team in the game.

“He made a couple of (big) saves for us and that’s Andrew,” Murray said. “He makes the saves when we need them and that’s one of the reasons we are where we are.”