By Chris Trujillo
Herald Writer
MOUNT VERNON – A history of futility came to an end for Edmonds-Woodway on Thursday when the Warriors shocked perennial Western Conference powerhouse Snohomish, 2-0 to capture the Northwest District championship at Mount Vernon High School.
The victory gives the postseason newcomers, who improved to 11-4-1 overall, a No. 1 seed heading into the first round of the state tournament next week. It was E-W’s fourth consecutive victory and its first title since becoming Edmonds-Woodway High School nearly a decade ago.
“We haven’t really been successful since the school opened,” said E-W coach Tony Gilman, whose team missed the playoffs last season. “We’ve always had the talent, but we have never been able to get over that hurdle.”
The Wesco North champion Panthers, who have won the conference title for the past four years, suffered its first loss of the season and dropped to 12-1-4 overall. Snohomish enters the state tournament as the district’s No. 2 seed.
“They played hard and we didn’t,” Snohomish coach Dan Pingrey said “This wasn’t close to our A game.”
Junior midfielder Kevin Forrest scored the eventual winning goal 48 seconds into the second half to give E-W a 1-0 lead. It came off a Snohomish turnover, which ricocheted back to Forrest to give him a point-blank shot 5 yards from the goal.
“To be honest, there were some quotes in the paper by them (Snohomish) about how they were going to win state and stuff,” said Forrest, who scored his 10th goal of the season. “They gave us motivation and we did the rest. They didn’t seem too worried about us.
The Warriors sealed the game following a tripping penalty to Nicholas Varlamos, who fired a low-liner past Snohomish goalkeeper Bryan Harrison to make the score 2-0 with 21 minutes remaining in the game. E-W goalkeeper Hawk Mummey recorded his sixth shutout of the season.
“The difference this year and tonight has been the maturity of our team,” Gilman said. “Dan (Pingrey) has a great team. They’ve won the conference several times. That’s what we use to measure our success.”
The evenly played first half saw two different types of offensive pressure. The underdog Warriors, who forced Snohomish’s Harrison to make six first-half saves, attacked from deep inside the Snohomish end. The Panthers, who got off six shots, applied their pressure with shots from the outside. Mummey made a pair of sterling saves midway through the first half to keep Snohomish scoreless.
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