Monroe boys soccer downs Marysville Getchell, clinches state spot

Published 10:25 pm Tuesday, May 13, 2025

SHORELINE — The No. 1-seeded Monroe boys soccer team faced No. 4 Marysville Getchell for the third time this season on Tuesday night. Having won the two regular-season matchups by a combined score of 9-1, the Bearcats came into the district semifinal matchup as favorites.

They played like it.

The Wesco North 3A champs earned a 3-0 victory, clinching a spot at state and a berth in Saturday’s district championship against No. 2 Shorewood. Senior midfielder Connor Dayley delivered two perfect corner kicks for two assists while defender Zach Pazier (27th minute), defender Tristen Coe (58th minute) and forward Benji Vodegel (88th minute) each scored. Keeper Pedro Gaspar claimed Monroe’s seventh clean sheet of the season.

The Bearcats (16-1-0 overall) hadn’t lost since March 28 and were coming into Tuesday’s match on a 10-game win streak. The Chargers (9-5-2) haven’t been slouching either recently, having won five straight in the lead-up to round three with Monroe.

Even though the Bearcats had dominant wins in the season series, Monroe head coach Korey Hope wasn’t focused on the past in preparation for the semifinal game.

“Playing a team for a third time around is a challenge,” Hope said. “You know them really well, and the past results are not indicative of any future results by any stretch of the imagination, especially on a new pitch with playoff implications.”

The early going saw both squads feel each other out — they last played April 22.

Dayley put the first shot on goal in the fourth minute while Marysville Getchell star Abdala Hassani kicked two of the Chargers’ three unsuccessful corners in the first 10 minutes of the matchup.

Anybody could tell these teams were very familiar with each other from the physical nature of play and jeering from the respective fan bases in the stands. Marysville Getchell’s defense tackled Monroe forward Julian Perez in the 14th minute to earn a warning as the Bearcats’ constant possession of the ball seemed to frustrate the Chargers.

In the 28th minute, Vodegal finally broke free to meet Chargers keeper Laith Al-Bahathly in the open field, only for Al-Bahathly to deflect his first shot while defender Evan Smith made an incredible save on Vodegal’s follow-up.

After sailing another shot wide of the goal and missing out on an opportunity from the corner, the Bearcats seized momentum in the 27th minute. Dayley sailed a corner kick from the left side high into the box, and Pazier made perfect contact on a header to score Monroe’s first goal.

Considering the height of his team, Dayley and the Bearcats have not been shy about making set pieces a major part of their winning recipe.

“Last game we played Lynnwood, and they were kind of playing zonal,” Dayley said. “It worked pretty well against us. But (the Chargers) were playing a man mark. We know we’re taller than them, so I had to put it up.”

The squads would get just a five-minute intermission, and Monroe came out of it swinging.

The Bearcats controlled possession almost completely for the first 10 minutes of the period before the Chargers made a decent push, missing Hassani on a counterattack to give the ball away.

Monroe made sure to make them pay, as Dayley delivered another corner into a scrum that the Chargers were trying to play man-to-man against. It didn’t end well, as Coe just barely pushed a shot over the line before it could be saved in the 58th minute.

Al-Bahathly would make an incredible save on a ball launched for the top left bin to prevent a 3-0 deficit in the 62nd, but the Chargers offense just couldn’t find the velocity on passes to get by a stringent Bearcats defense.

Vodegel finally got his goal after a long day of clearing space on the wing, scoring in the open field on a nifty move against the keeper in the 88th minute.

Vodegel’s final blow concluded a game in which his squad led shots on goal 11-0 and corners 7-3.

For Chargers head coach Stephen Strom, it’s onto the next.

“We just move on. We know what’s in the past, we know we still have something to play for,” Strom said.

Indeed they do, as Marysville Getchell will take on No. 6 Edmonds-Woodway in a loser-out, winner-to-state game on Saturday.

For Dayley, advancing past districts after burning out in the quarterfinals of last year’s tournament meant the world.

“(It’s) super gratifying,” he said. “We thought we deserved to go to state last year, it just didn’t come through for us, kind of got unlucky. To get this this year feels really good.”

But in the midst of all the winning and the relief of making state, Monroe keeps things in perspective on the sideline.

Hope took the time to pull each substitution aside and point out what he saw on the pitch, something that’s become a habit in his six years with Monroe. When junior midfielder Alvin Mendez collided with Al-Bahathly just before halftime to pick up a yellow card, Hope spent time checking on his frustrated player before finishing out the half.

“At this age, it’s still so developmental, and I feel like that’s forgotten a lot,” Hope said. “I can remember when I was in high school, all that development I still had to do with and without the game… I try to never miss an opportunity to do that.”

“Because those are things that really have an impact, if we’re focusing on development rather than results.”