Mariner makes more history

Published 10:42 pm Tuesday, May 17, 2011

EVERETT — Mariner High School has never been known as a soccer school. Unlike other traditional Wesco powers, Mariner does not have a large pool of select-team players with which to populate its roster and the Marauders have usually found themselves hovering toward the bottom of the league standings.

But when seemingly the entire student body streams out of the stands to join in postgame celebrations at midfield, one gets the sense that the times may be a’changing.

Mariner’s dream season took another step forward Tuesday night as the Marauders defeated the Thomas Jefferson Raiders 2-0 in the first round of the Class 4A state playoffs.

A large and boisterous crowd was on hand at Goddard Stadium to witness just the second state tournament victory in Mariner school history. The only other win came nearly 20 years to the day earlier, when the Marauders knocked off Bellarmine Prep 3-0 in the first round in 1991.

“That felt good,” sophomore midfielder Miguel Medina said about being swamped by the swarm of Mariner students after the game. “I’m glad our whole school came out to support us. It means a lot for us.

“We’re making history again for Mariner and I hope it keeps going.”

One would have a difficult time finding a first-round match-up between schools with such different histories. Thomas Jefferson is a perennial power with a long and glorious tradition in boys soccer. Coming into the playoffs the Raiders had six more state championships under its belt than Mariner had state wins.

But Mariner (17-3) used goals by Medina and senior Bogdan Nikitov, along with a stout defense, to advance to the quarterfinals Saturday.

And the Marauders pulled it off despite the distraction of the unusually strong fan support.

“We found a way to win, even when we didn’t play our best. I think (the crowd support) is what kind of threw the kids off a little bit,” a grinning Mariner coach Vince DeSimone said. “All the fans they’ve never seen before, the principals, the cheerleaders, they were all over the place.

“It’s like a battery, this team just keeps recharging and going and going and going,” DeSimone added. “What can you say about this game? It was a hard-fought game. We knew TJ was going to come out and play a good game, they have a lot of good players on their team. But our team believes it can do this.”

Senior goalkeeper Ulises Hernandez recorded the shutout in goal for the Marauders, but he was rarely troubled as Mariner’s back four of senior Adama Drammeh, juniors Alex Vladyka and Aleksey Gubarik, and sophomore Cristhian Robles kept the Raiders largely to the perimeter.

Thomas Jefferson, the fifth seed from the West Central District and the No. 2 team from the South Puget Sound League North, finished its season 14-3-2.

Little of note happened during the game’s first 25 minutes, but the Marauders struck in the 26th — with a tad bit of fortune. Mariner was awarded a free kick outside the right side of the Thomas Jefferson penalty box. Medina sent a cross toward Nikitov at the near post. Raiders goalkeeper McKay Owsley came out to defend a potential Nikitov header. However, the ball got past Nikitov, Owsley was wrong-footed, and the ball nestled into the back of the net to give the Marauders a 1-0 lead into halftime.

“I was just trying to get it to the back post,” Medina explained. “Either someone was going to head it in or someone was going to miss and it was going to go in.”

Mariner then made it 2-0 14 minutes into the second half, again with Medina playing a crucial role. Medina slithered his way through three defenders on the left and pulled the ball back toward the penalty spot. Geovanni Ramirez’s shot was blocked, but the ball fell right to Nikitov, who pivoted and powered the ball into the corner from close range to give the Marauders a two-goal advantage.

Down two goals, Thomas Jefferson upped the urgency and the Marauders spent the rest of the game defending. Drammeh made a crucial goal-line clearance of a Matthew Cruz shot in the 63rd minute with Hernandez down and out. Then in the 72nd minute Thomas Jefferson’s Charles Yi put the ball in the net after a scramble in the penalty box, only to have the goal ruled out for offsides. That was the Raiders’ last real chance at making it a contest, and the Marauders and their new-found fans are headed to the quarterfinals.