Shorewood boys soccer survives Lynnwood in district semis

Published 11:46 pm Tuesday, May 12, 2026

SHORELINE — Shorewood boys soccer is not used to playing from behind.

But after taking a 1-0 lead against Lynnwood just two minutes into the District 1 3A semifinals at Shoreline Stadium on Tuesday, Shorewood allowed the visitors to tie it up five minutes later before falling behind 2-1 less than three minutes into the second half. It was only the second time Shorewood trailed in a game this season, but with both a state tournament berth and a spot in the district title game on the line, one would be hard-pressed to find a worse time for that to happen.

But the No. 1 seed Stormrays (17-0-1) did not panic.

Twelve minutes after senior Ian Baxter set up classmate Nikola Genadiev to tie it up in the 51st minute, senior Kaito Ayers scored the go-ahead goal to ultimately give Shorewood a 3-2 win against the No. 5 seed Royals (10-8-1). After winning the district tournament last year en route to a loss in the 3A State Championship, the Stormrays officially secured the opportunity to try and one-up themselves.

“I think trailing by a goal, it really shows your character,” Ayers said. “And I think a lot of teams — especially if you’re the favorite in the game — a lot of teams will start to play the blame game, start blaming teammates. But I think we really stayed as a family and found a way to come back.”

It appeared that Shorewood would steamroll its way into the title game when Genadiev scored around 90 seconds into the match. The forward won possession of the ball in Lynnwood’s half, and despite Royals freshman Hamody Alzeer stepping in to poke the ball loose as he entered the 18-yard box, Genadiev regained control and ripped a shot to the back of the net.

However, Lynnwood responded right back before the Stormrays had a chance to pull away. Senior Henrry Torres-Hernandez perfectly timed a run through the Shorewood back line to receive a through ball into open space. Torres-Hernandez cruised into the box and rolled a shot low to the far corner, tying the game 1-1 in the seventh minute.

Shorewood dominated the number of chances by the end of the first half, with passing between Ayers and Genadiev up top, seniors Bobby Lamb and Meiron Bereket on the wings, and seniors Daniel Bruno and Isak Medhaug in the middle creating a dynamic attack from all angles. Despite the Stormrays’ stacked chances, junior goalie Gustavo Aguilera-Torres and the Royals back line held up to the challenge.

The score remained 1-1 heading into the break, but that did not last long. Just like Shorewood’s quick start in the first half, Lynnwood grabbed the lead in the 43rd minute when junior Vladyslav Tarasiuk punched in a loose ball from inside the box to give the Stormrays their first deficit since they trailed Shorecrest 2-0 before winning 4-2 on April 17.

Despite ultimately failing to come away with the result on Tuesday, Royals coach Pablo Mummey felt his team proved it belonged entering Thursday’s winner-to-state consolation match against Mount Vernon, where he plans to make some defensive adjustments following the breakdown on Shorewood’s first goal.

“I’m pretty confident,” Mummey said. “These guys, they’ve been battle-tested, and they played a big giant tonight. We went head-to-head with them. I thought we did pretty well. … I have a good feeling about (Thursday). We just work on a couple of things. We had a plan for these guys, just sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”

No plan could disrupt the confidence on the Stormrays’ end. Even after falling behind 2-1, the players never felt like they would end up losing.

“There’s no (single) guy to lead the team. I feel like we all know mentally (that) we all depend on each other,” Genadiev said. “We all work for each other, and as soon as we saw the second goal go in, I felt like we all knew that we were fine. We were going to come back because we know how hard we work for each other.”

Sure enough, opportunity struck in the 51st minute. Torres-Hernandez drew a foul to set Lynnwood up with a free kick from the left side of the Shorewood 18-yard box, but the Stormrays cleared it up to Baxter, who made a mad dash with the ball the other way. After getting past a Royals player attempting to bring the ball down with a high kick, Baxter settled into a 2-on-1 counter alongside Genadiev.

Upon reaching the Lynnwood box, Baxter pulled in the lone defender and passed into space for Genadiev, who cashed in his second goal of the night to tie it 2-2.

“When I was driving, I knew that we were 2-v-1. We had the advantage there,” Baxter said. “And I knew that if I kept driving towards (the defender), he’d have to come step to me, make a decision. I know if I pass it to (Genadiev), I just have faith that he’ll put it in the back of the net.”

Ayers put two shots on goal in a five-minute span approaching the midpoint of the second half, but the forward finally broke through with a shot outside the six-yard box in the 63rd minute to give the Stormrays a 3-2 lead. He was ready to finish things.

“I think I looked up, I saw that no one was around me, and I just said, ‘Screw it, I’m going to score here,’” Ayers said. “Took my guy on, cut in, finished it. Barbecue chicken.”

Shorewood continued to control most of the possession down the stretch, but Lynnwood generated one last opportunity in an attempt to force overtime when Torres-Hernandez set up senior Natan Kiflemariam into space down the left side, but the shot went just wide approaching the final two minutes.

The Stormrays will aim to win their fourth straight District 1 3A Championship, and standing in their way will be crosstown rival, No. 3 Shorecrest (15-2-1), whose only two losses this season are against Shorewood. The two sides will battle it out on their home turf on Saturday.

Tuesday’s win was not the prettiest way to set up a potential four-peat, but the Stormrays and their 13 seniors will take any opportunity they can to keep the tradition rolling.

“It’s hard to do what they’re doing,” Shorewood coach Shaun Warner said. “There’s so much pressure, especially when you know you haven’t lost a game, there’s just that extra pressure that they’re feeling. No one’s going to give us anything. Everyone’s going to give us their best game. We can’t go in thinking anything about what we did regular season, what we did last year. No one cares when we play them. So the message is: We’re taking it game-by-game, and we’re just trying to play an extra game to we can play with each other.”