Archbishop Murphy beats Hoquiam 3-1 in state opener

Published 9:14 pm Tuesday, May 19, 2009

EVERETT — Erik Schmidt adapted the Kobe Bryant method of scoring on Tuesday night.

Keep shooting, and eventually the ball will go in the net.

Schmidt may not have had one of those 40-point performances for which the Los Angeles Lakers’ Bryant has become famous, but he did the soccer equivilant.

Schmidt, a junior midfielder for the Archbishop Murphy boys soccer team, overcame several missed scoring chances early on before scoring a hat trick to lead the Wildcats to a 3-1 win over Hoquiam in a first-round game of the 2A state tournament.

“After my first few (shots that) I missed, I had to pull it together,” said Schmidt, who took 13 shots en route to the first hat trick of his high school career.

Schmidt had the opportunities all night, although it took him a while to capitalize on them. Ninety seconds into the game, he took a nice corner-kick pass from teammate Sean Ryan but shot the ball over the crossbar. Nine minutes later, Schmidt made a nifty spin move but shot high again.

His next two shots were aimed at the lower left corner, both of which resulted in saves from Hoquiam goalkeeper Doug Rowell.

After more than 28 minutes, Schmidt finally beat Rowell by going to the other side of the net. Off another perfect corner kick from Ryan, the 6-foot-3 Schmidt re-directed the ball with a header into the lower right corner of the net for a 1-0 halftime lead.

Despite the low score, the first half was much more one-sided than it appeared. The Wildcats outshot Hoquiam 11-3 and continually put pressure on the Grizzlies’ net. Schmidt had seven shots in the first half alone.

The Archbishop Murphy junior added another goal in the third minute of the second half, picking up a loose ball in front of the net and firing it past Rowell for a 2-0 lead.

Hoquiam’s Eli Abbott got the Grizzlies on the board with a goal in the 52nd minute, but Archbishop Murphy held them off despite several scoring chances on both ends over the final 28 minutes.

The Wildcats’ Ryan nearly scored on a header in the 69th minute, but the ball careened off the crossbar. Teammate Erik McCaughan had two scoring chances in the second half but got turned away both times.

Rowell had 11 saves to keep Hoquiam in the game, but Schmidt eventually broke him again for the clincher. Schmidt’s goal with four minutes remaining helped the Wildcats breathe easy.

Archbishop Murphy goalkeeper Doug Ehlebracht, who took a hard shot to the face in the opening minutes of the game, was solid on the few occasions that he had to be. He made three saves of potential score-tying shots, the most important of which came in the 76th minute. Ehlbracht did the splits to thwart a Hoquiam defender in front of the net, 30 seconds before Schmidt’s third and final goal on the other end.

Ehlbracht finished with four saves, getting help from defenders Sterling Hoza, Aidan Huggins and Gino Tasakos along the way.

The Wildcats outshot Hoquiam 26-7 for the game. Archbishop Murphy also had 13 corner kicks, to just two for Hoquiam.

Archbishop Murphy (15-5) will now face either Steilacoom or Aberdeen in a quarterfinal match. The date and time of that match has not yet been announced.

“We’re excited,” Schmidt said. “Our first goal was to win league, and we did that. Then we wanted to win districts, and we took second, so we didn’t reach that goal.

“Now, we’re in the state quarterfinals. Hopefully, we can just keep it going as far as we can.”