Cedarcrest loses to Interlake in 2A final

Published 8:53 pm Saturday, November 19, 2011

SHORELINE — The Cedarcrest girls soccer team had the toughest task of the day at Shoreline Stadium Saturday after dropping the 2A state title game 1-0 to Interlake.

Less than two minutes after the final horn sounded, WIAA officials gathered the teams at midfield, side by side to accept the team trophies.

The Saints accepted the grand first-place trophy, capped with a silver and black metal soccer ball, with giggles, screams and hugs. Meanwhile, the Red Wolves had to fight tears, frowns and bowed heads for a photo with a modest second-place trophy that capped a phenomenal season, which in the minds of Cedarcrest was not quite enough.

“It’s always hard to get second place,” senior defender McKenna Swanson said. “It (stinks). We are all so competitive. We were all focusing on winnings state. We wanted it so badly. We were talking about it from the beginning. It just didn’t turn out the way we wanted.”

Cedarcrest completed a season with just three losses, once to Lakewood and Archbishop Murphy, which ended up winning the third-place game earlier in the day, and one to Interlake, which didn’t surrender a goal during the playoffs, shutting out three Cascade Conference teams in the process including, Lakewood and Murphy.

“People are really sad now, but I think we are going to reflect over the game and be happy with second place,” Swanson said. “It’s hard for a lot of the seniors, because a lot of them don’t play club soccer, so this is their last game.”

The teams were even for most of the game. Cedarcrest set the tone early and then Interlake took the reins later in the first half. The Saints out shot the Red Wolves 7-6 in the scoreless first period.

Interlake wasted no time breaking the seal on the Cedarcrest goal after halftime. Isabelle Farrell, a University of Washington recruit, lined up for a corner kick in the 41st minute and the other Saints cleared the area around the goal. As the ball took flight, Emma Bergstrom, who leads the Saints in scoring, converged on it and kicked it from point blank range by Bailey Parish in goal.

“Isabelle, who is a phenomenal player, she plays on my club team. She has a wicked left foot and the ball just cured in and we weren’t tight on our marks,” Swanson said. “Emma got a knee on it and got lucky and it went in the goal.”

It wasn’t a spectacular goal, but it was enough.

The Saints defense was up to the task for the rest of the second half. Swanson had great opportunities to put in free kicks in the 70th and 75th minutes from 35 and 23 yards out respectively, but both sailed over the crossbar by about one ball’s height.

Red Wolves coach Evan Hatch was proud of his team after the game.

“I really think we gave it our best shot, which was good,” the Cedarcrest coach said.

“We played well. I though we played them pretty square. Their defense didn’t do anything particularly special.”

Interlake coach Kirk Tavener celebrated his birthday with the Saints first-ever state crown, but he didn’t relax until all the time ticked off the clock. After the game he heaped praise on the Red Wolves.

“They are a tough team.” Tavener said. “Probably one of the toughest teams in 2A that we’ve played. Us playing Kingco 3A prepared us for a team like Cedarcrest. Cedarcrest has some really great players.

“They worried me. They really did.”

Catie Getzendaner recorded the clean sheet in goal for Interlake. Of the eight games held at Shoreline Stadium for both the 1A and 2A tournaments Friday and Saturday, the teams listed as visitors were undefeated, while home teams — the ones wearing white — were outscored 13-1.

“That sounds like soccer to me,” Hatch said. “That’s about as random as soccer can be sometimes. That’s just how it goes.”