Snohomish United men’s soccer gearing up for playoff push

Published 12:40 am Saturday, June 27, 2026

SNOHOMISH — Snohomish United needed just 14 minutes to get on the board against Bigfoot FC at Stocker Fields on Friday, but it could not capitalize on the rest of its chances prior to halftime.

In the final 10 minutes alone, Connor Lofy set up Clarens Dollin with a pass inside, but his shot went wide in the 35th minute. Lofy teed up Nicolas Wiskel — who scored the opening goal earlier in the match — for another shot five minutes later, but it went straight to the Bigfoot goalkeeper Landon Gordon. Snohomish wrapped up the half with Carter Gay volleying a ball just outside the right post on an aerial pass in front, and the referee signaled for the break immediately after.

The momentum was in United’s hands, but they only had a 1-0 lead to show for it. Head coach Anthony Sardon wanted to see more.

“I think in the first half, we struggled to have the discipline and quality up front to put our chances away,” said Gay, an Everett native and Cascade High School alum who plays for the University of Washington. “(Sardon) came in at halftime and said, ‘This isn’t good enough, and if we want to be one of the best teams in the country, we have to finish our chances, even against the not-as-good teams.’”

After making the necessary adjustments and moving the ball with more purpose in the final third, Snohomish worked the ball to Dollin in the middle for a rocket blast to the back of the net in the 56th minute, and Wiskel topped things off with his second goal of the night in the 76th minute to give first-place United (9-1-0, 27 points) a 3-0 victory against last-place Bigfoot (1-6-2, 9 points).

“Tonight, we started a bit slow, but the good thing about this group is once you go through something with them, they’re not really surprised by a whole lot of things,” Sardon said. “They can make adjustments on the fly, so they did a great job of showing good character in the second half and coming out fast. That was the main thing, is can we play at a high tempo? And they’re a good bunch of players who are really battle-tested.”

Indeed, Friday marked the ninth win in a row for Snohomish, which sits atop the United Soccer League Two (USL2) Northwest Division by two points ahead of reigning champion Ballard FC (8-1-1, 25 points). United has not lost since its season-opening 1-0 defeat to Bangers FC on May 16, and with four games left in the regular season, it hopes to ride that streak to a USL2 playoff spot, which will go to each of the top two teams in the four Western Conference divisions.

“The first couple games, we definitely were feeling each other out, figuring out how each other plays,” Lofy said. “But as the season’s gone on, we’ve really kind of figured it out. We’ve gotten sharper, the build-up’s been better. Our finishing has been better, and we’ve created a lot more chances and been clinical, so I think it’s just like something that as the season progresses, you kind of feel your way in and we get more chemistry as a team.”

USL2 is in the fourth tier of the United States men’s soccer system, beneath Major League Soccer (MLS), USL Championship and the third tier containing USL League One, MLS Next Pro and National Independent Soccer Association (NISA). USL2 has become a popular summer development league for collegiate and other pre-professional players, and Snohomish United assembled a roster primed with local players who have big-time winning experience.

Gay, Lofy, Dollin, Zackary Meier, Brecken Bowers and goalkeeper Kenny Pierpoint all played for the University of Washington squad that won the 2025 NCAA Championship last fall, and a large portion of the team played for the Crossfire Premier Soccer Club growing up.

Nearly a year ago, the Crossfire Boys U18/19 team won the Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) National Championship in Redmond. The players hope they can bring that winning experience to Snohomish with a deep USL2 playoff run, but not before they take care of business in the remaining regular season matches, which will be capped with a high-stakes finale against Ballard FC on July 12.

“Us and Ballard (are) kind of head-to-head right now,” said Snohomish native Beckham Uderitz, who played for Sporting Kansas City II in MLS Next Pro last season and is the son of Snohomish United technical director Scott Uderitz. “It’s going to be awesome July 12 to get that battle going again. … It’s all up to us, just winning games, winning out.”

United does not only boast a roster littered with local collegiate talent, but two MLS draft picks as well. Redmond native Eric Howard plays for Georgetown and was selected 35th overall in the 2025 MLS SuperDraft by the New England Revolution, and Lofy, a Kirkland native, was selected 89th overall in the 2026 MLS SuperDraft by the Vancouver Whitecaps. The two have played together since they were around 9-10 years old, and they each view USL2 as a way to stay sharp in their development, leading into their upcoming college seasons.

“The main thing is keeping up fitness going into preseason,” Howard said. “The season starts quick, so keeping your fitness level is very important, and then also, if you can get incrementally sharper, your touch, just work on some things that you may not have the opportunity to work on at school, I think that’s the most you could want to get out of that experience.”

Sardon credits Snohomish United’s youth system and affiliation with Crossfire as a significant advantage when it came to assembling the roster. Whether it’s players who spent years developing in their system or players whom they got to know from watching them at nearby clubs over the years, United managed to fill out a squad that can lean on its familiarity with each other as much as its skill.

“You want like-minded individuals that fit your mission and vision that you want out on the field,” Sardon said. “We were very careful with who we were selecting for this roster, and it’s got to fit together because there’s a lot of moving parts in this league. Guys who are coming in at different times from college, or they’re leaving at different times for college. … You got to make sure that it’s the right fit of personalities and character.”

So far, it has proven to be a successful formula.