Jackson boys soccer snaps four-game skid

Published 12:47 am Tuesday, April 7, 2026

SNOHOMISH — Anthony Gonzalez-Marroquin was in this exact spot a year ago.

Lined up to take a penalty kick for Jackson boys soccer, which was tied 1-1 with Snohomish at Veterans Memorial Stadium on Monday, the senior could not help but think about the same opportunity that he sent off the post in last year’s matchup between the two sides.

Jackson still walked away with the victory last year, but the miss stuck with Gonzalez-Marroquin, especially since the opposing goalkeeper, Zachary Khorrami, played with him at Crossfire Premier SC growing up.

Granted an opportunity for redemption in the 64th minute of Monday’s match, Gonzalez-Marroquin felt tempted to let a teammate take the shot instead. But only for a moment.

“Since (last year), it’s always been a revenge story,” Gonzalez-Marroquin said. “I really wanted to just get my revenge on him. When this opportunity came at first, I wanted another teammate to kick it just because I didn’t want to repeat the same mistake.

“But I realized I need to be the senior who steps up, just like every other senior stepped up before I did.”

Guessing that Khorrami would dive based on their experience training together, Gonzalez-Marroquin opted for a chip up the middle and found the back of the net to put Jackson ahead, and after 16 minutes of protecting the lead, the Timberwolves (3-5-0) secured a 2-1 win against the Panthers (3-6-0) after trailing 1-0.

The victory snapped a four-game losing streak for Jackson, during which each game was decided by one goal. Coach Eddie Fernandez felt his team played well within its structure, executing in transition and changing its points of attack throughout the skid, but the Timberwolves did not do those things consistently for a full game.

“The results haven’t been going our way, so it’s been a learning curve for the boys and myself,” Fernandez said. “But we had a lot of good things in those losses, so it’s been frustrating. … We’ve been talking about just that winning mentality and just trying to come out and battle, and I thought today was a great epitome of that in going down 1-0 early but playing well.”

Conceding early goals had also been a weakness for the squad recently, and that’s exactly what happened on Monday.

Snohomish junior Carson Maechler nearly scored in the ninth minute, but his shot was tipped out wide past the back line for a corner kick instead. The Panthers could not get a shot on the initial kick, but maintained possession around the box. From the left side, junior Isidro Lopez Moreno sent a ball through the air across the top of the box, where Maechler settled it and scored in the 10th minute to give the Panthers the early lead.

“We mentally prepared each other that if that does happen and they score on us first, we knew going into it that we needed to stay sharp,” Gonzalez-Marroquin said. “Keep our heads up because it happens to all the best teams, but it’s just the way you react. And I think we owe all that to our coach (Fernandez) for being able to just give us that motivation.”

The Timberwolves controlled most of the possession in Snohomish’s side, but they struggled to get into the danger areas to create chances. Even in the few moments they did manage to get behind the stout Panthers back line, Khorrami would come up with the save.

Entering halftime, Fernandez did not want to change much tactically, as he was pleased with the possession. The biggest focus was shifting the team’s mentality to fight for every ball and do whatever necessary to tie the game up, and it resonated with the players.

“The halftime speech kind of got us together,” senior Isaac Hsu said. “We got worked up a little bit, down one goal. (We) felt strong, felt confident.”

Despite the renewed energy, it was Snohomish that came out stronger in the second half. The Panthers’ pressure put them in position to strike on a series of set-pieces through the first four minutes, but they could not double their lead on any of them.

Eventually, the tide started to turn. In the 49th minute, Hsu sent a ball out wide to junior Isaiah Cyril Natividad on a counterattack. After rolling down the left sideline, Natividad sent a cross back in to Hsu, who found space in the box with only the keeper in front of him before putting it to the back of the net.

“I think we had a lot of opportunities (in the first half). We just didn’t put them away,” Hsu said. “So it was just keep doing what we were doing, just knowing that we were doing well, and then we’ll get our chance eventually.”

Energized by the equalizer, Jackson started to put together more chances. A major catalyst, according to Gonzalez-Marroquin, was moving senior Brady McPherson up from his usual position of center back to attacking with Gonzalez-Marroquin, who normally plays on the wing. The Timberwolves knew they needed to try something new entering Monday’s game, and that change allowed the team to switch the ball a lot more and direct play through two experienced leaders up the middle.

However, Khorrami continued to stand tall in the Snohomish goal, stepping in to intercept any cross attempts. He made a sliding kick save on McPherson after sophomore Juno Jun set him up with a well-placed through ball in the 55th minute, and the Panthers started to push back after that. The action moved back and forth until a Snohomish foul in the box gave Gonzalez-Marroquin the penalty kick, which he converted to put Jackson ahead.

Even with the lead, the Timberwolves never let up their effort to score, knowing the Panthers were capable of stringing together an equalizing play at any moment.

“Snohomish here at home, they play hard,” Fernandez said. “Coach (Dan) Pingrey has them working organized, and they were putting us under pressure. I thought our boys did well in dealing with the direct ball and dropping off, and then when we did get the ball, trying to keep possession, which I think we could have done a little bit cleaner on and maybe added to that, but we still kept putting the pressure on the goal.”

Once the clock slipped inside the final two minutes, the Panthers created one last opportunity with a cross inside the box. Gonzalez-Marroquin stepped up once again, this time to block the shot and clear the ball out of danger in an effort that left him sprawled on the ground next to the corner flag.

He emptied the tank at the perfect time, as the final whistle blew right after that to lock in Jackson’s win.

“I just wanted the ball out of there,” Gonzalez-Marroquin said. “I didn’t care how it was taken out. I just wanted it out of there, and I knew that I had to step up again to be able to clear the ball out because otherwise that penalty (kick) was for nothing. So I just had to pour my all in there. I had no energy left — I gave it my all.”

While it felt good for the Timberwolves to get back in the win column, the non-league victory did nothing to impact their standing at the bottom of Wesco 4A, where they have a 1-4-0 record. Still, with seven of their final eight regular-season games coming against league opponents, Jackson hopes Monday can spring them into a strong finish.

“It’s definitely a bounce-back from our four-loss streak,” Hsu said. “Even though this is non-conference, I think it especially puts us back in the energy and motivation to work hard during practice knowing that we still have a good chance of performing well in the conference.”