EVERETT — The Everett Seagulls girls soccer team is starting to make this Class 3A thing look easy.
Behind sophomore Annie Sittauer’s first hat trick of the season, the Seagulls opened up the Class 3A state tournament with a convincing 6-0 victory over the Mount Rainier Rams on Wednesday night at Everett Memorial Stadium.
After finishing off its regular season with a 12-4 record and second place in a mostly Class 4A Wesco North division, Everett has put together four straight postseason wins — including three straight to win their second consecutive 3A District 1 title — outscoring its opponents by an amazing 23-1 margin.
“The girls know what’s at stake so they’re playing with everything they got. They come prepared, mentally and physically, and are excited to play. I think it shows,” Everett head coach Kosta Pitharoulis said, agreeing that playing against the North foes is good preparation for the postseason.
“It’s not so much as playing against the 4A as it is the caliber of the (Wesco North),” Pitharoulis said.
The Seagulls (16-4 overall) move into the quarterfinals for the second straight year and have a shot at avenging last year’s 2-0 quarterfinal loss to Seattle Prep. Everett faces the Panthers (15-2-3), shootout winners over Camas in the opening round, on Saturday at a time to be determined.
“We’ve got a year under our belt. We’re playing very well as a team. We’ve learned from the experience of playing at state last year,” Pitharoulis said about the rematch with Seattle Prep.
This time though the Seagulls go into the quarterfinal game with a little more firepower in their legs.
Senior forward Simone Tarver opened up the scoring for Everett on Wednesday night and then made way for the youngsters as the Seagulls’ final five goals were all scored by sophomores. Three of those five goals came off of the foot of Sittauer, whose hat trick couldn’t have come at a better time.
Sittauer scored twice in the final three minutes of the first half, then scored once more two minutes into the second half before being pulled from the game in the 31st minute.
“We’re really coming together top. At the beginning (of the season) it was kind of an all do-it yourself and now we have more help up there,” Sittauer said.
Sophomore’s Sele Vance and Kylie Beeson each added a goal and an assist for the Seagulls.
Everett spent much of the first half trying to get their offense kick-started. After missing on three scoring opportunities, Tarver poked in her first goal. In the eighth minute, Sittauer and Vance teased Everett and its fans by missing on back-to-back shots. Sittauer sent a ricochet off the right post that Vance played perfectly but ended up overshooting the goal.
“At that point it was 1-0. I was thinking ‘What if that’s the one that bites us later.’ It didn’t happen that way, but that was going through my mind at that time,” Pitharoulis said.
Sittauer got her first goal three minutes later, booting it in from 30 yards out after the defender settled the ball in front of her.
“It pushed me to get another one,” Sittauer said of the earlier near miss, “It was only 1-0 at that time. It was good just kind of pumped me up.”
She’d add her second goal two minutes later dribbling the ball 35 yards before pushing it up and over the keeper’s head.
The sophomore completed her hat trick early in the second half when the ball got away from two Rams’ defenders. Sittauer, facing a 1-on-1 with the goalie, gently pushed the ball past the keeper.
At Everett Memorial Stadium
Goals-Everett: Tarver, Vance, Sittauer 3, Beeson. Assists-Everett: Letourneu, Stahl, Beeson, Bell, McMullen, Vance. Goalkeepers: Mount Rainier: Schneeman and Luchau. Everett: Nesting. Records-Mount Rainier 12-6-1 overall. Everett 16-4.
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