Long free kick lifts Snohomish boys soccer past Mountlake Terrace

Published 12:02 am Friday, May 8, 2026

SNOHOMISH — When Morgan Hereth stepped up to take a free kick just in front of midfield at Veterans Memorial Stadium on Thursday, the Snohomish senior had a clear idea where he wanted to put it.

With the score tied 0-0 in the 27th minute of a District 1 3A loser-out game against Mountlake Terrace, Snohomish coach Dan Pingrey instructed Hereth to drop it into the six-yard box, in hopes that a teammate would be in prime position to knock it in. Except before Hereth stepped into the kick, he heard a voice of dissension from the same sideline. It was assistant coach Michael Herrera encouraging him to shoot it.

Shoot it? From 45 yards out? Why? Well, Hereth thought, why not?

“I decided, ‘Why not shoot it?’” Hereth said after the game, standing just a few yards away from where he took the kick. “We need some momentum going.”

Hereth instantly thought the ball would sail over the crossbar. Then it started to drop. The ball went untouched as it soared inside the right post and into the back of the net to give Snohomish a 1-0 lead.

“I was like, ‘Oh shoot, it might go in,’” Hereth said. “And then I watched my teammates and the keeper missed the ball and it just kind of floated right on over. It was an awesome feeling, I was stoked.”

It proved to be the deciding goal, as the No. 8 seed Panthers (7-8-2) held on through the second half to punch their ticket to the quarterfinals with a 1-0 win against the No. 9 seed Hawks (5-11-1), giving Snohomish its first playoff win since 2019.

It wasn’t always pretty, but it’s what Pingrey has wanted ever since he returned as head coach in 2021 following his retirement in 2016. After initially taking over in 1999, Pingrey led the Panthers to four state championships (2000, 2006, 2014, 2015) as a perennial playoff power, and while they won the 2018 District 1 3A Championship, they were not quite as prominent at the state level as they used to be.

Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire program had just 22 players. So when Pingrey was asked to come back to try and revitalize things, it was an easy decision.

“I’d been in the program for 26 years (coaching boys and girls),” Pingrey said. “The (Snohomish soccer) insignia, I designed that like way back when. It meant a lot, the program, and so when I came back and saw that, that was really tough for me. And that’s when they asked. I live here and I care about it, so it was important for me to come back and say, ‘Hey, let’s get this back to where it was.’”

Following a shortened five-game season in 2021, the Panthers won a combined 10 games over the next three seasons (2022-24). Snohomish finished 6-8-2 in 2025, and topped that win total in 2026 with Thursday’s win. It’s still not like Pingrey’s heyday, but it’s moving in the right direction.

Thursday also marked the Panthers’ sixth straight game without a loss (4-0-2), a streak that started after a 3-1 loss to Monroe on April 17. Snohomish continued its early-season trend of letting leads slip, and the team decided it had enough. Since then, the players have noticed the offense controlling play better, and the defense locking down to make things easier on goalkeeper Zachary Khorrami.

Pingrey also lamented that there’s not as many year-round soccer players as 10-15 years ago, so there’s still a lot of learning and teaching going on early in the season. By now, each player has a better understanding of his role and the team tactics.

“Every game at the start of the season, I mean, we were mostly up and then we’d lose in the second half,” Khorrami said. “And now we’ve just figured out how to finish games and win them. We just flipped the season around and it feels good.”

Through the first 10 minutes of Thursday’s match, the ball moved back-and-forth across the field, neither side able to string together chances. The Panthers looked to take the lead in the 17th minute when junior Aurick Arreola-Villasenor broke open in the box on a through ball, but Mountlake Terrace goalie Owen Haverland stepped up to make the save. Hereth had a chance on the rebound, but it went wide.

The Hawks pushed back with a couple of long passes inside the box, but Khorrami made the necessary saves. Less than a minute after a Mountlake Terrace chance in the six-yard box was sent high in the 26th minute, Hereth scored on his free kick.

Some coaches may not want one of their assistants overriding their instruction like Herrera did, but with Pingrey it’s encouraged. He plans to retire (again) at the end of this season, and while he will remain around the program on a volunteer-basis, he feels ready to pass the torch. Herrera played as a freshman under Pingrey during the final season of his first stint, and that bridge between the past and present has helped in resetting the standard.

“(Michael and fellow assistant Jason Herrera) are coaching up and down on the sidelines,” Pingrey said. “C-team, JV, varsity, it’s a program. It’s about all of us getting better, and same thing with the staff. I’ve been doing this a long time; I want input. I want feedback constantly. They throw something (out) I don’t think about, let’s do it. I trust them. I like the way they think. We think the same way, and so yeah, that’s good.”

Mountlake Terrace nearly tied it up in the 35th minute when junior Taki Kobayashi intercepted a pass and rolled down the right side, but his cross went straight to Khorrami. The Hawks pushed for a tying goal throughout the second half, really ramping it up in the final 15 minutes, but aside from senior Ash Jeffers’ free kick that bounced off the crossbar and out in the 62nd minute, Khorrami and the Snohomish back line stayed on top of it.

Mountlake Terrace junior Abdalaziz Alhaj Mussa curled a cross into the box, but Khorrami jumped up to secure it out of the air over a swarm of players in the 66th minute. Panthers senior Sonteyago Seeley stepped up with a big tackle to steer another chance from Jeffers out of danger a minute later.

“Keep it in control as much as we can, especially going in with that lead is, I think, kind of key to holding that lead,” Hereth said. “Just controlling it, not letting them get any opportunities, not letting them get momentum going, just kind of killing their game.”

While seniors Hereth and Khorrami played key roles in the win, Pingrey was especially impressed with the underclassmen who stepped up, including but limited to recent JV call-ups sophomore Brian Flores Machuca and freshman Joseph Spangler. Machuca won a physical 1-on-1 battle to get a shot on goal inside the final 10 minutes, and Spangler received more minutes than usual with strong play on the outside.

“Those guys all came in and did a great job,” Pingrey said. “Young players, sophomores, freshmen that stepped up and played. That was fun to see. That’s what you’ve been hoping for all year, playing and getting in (the postseason), it’s a team effort.”

Snohomish picked up a confidence-building win, and confidence is exactly what the team will need heading into the next round. The Panthers will face the top seed Shorewood in the quarterfinals on Saturday. It’ll be a difficult test for a Snohomish team that Pingrey believes needs to do better job manufacturing goals, but the players feel ready to take it on.

“After last year, going out in the first (loser-out) game, losing 1-0 (to Lynnwood), we were kind of in Mountlake Terrace’s position, so we know how they feel,” Khorrami said. “We didn’t want to feel like that again this season. … We just need to finish chances and be more locked in than we ever have been. (Shorewood) is a great team, and it’s going to be a good game. We just got to be there mentally and physically.”