TACOMA — When the Class 3A high school boys soccer tournament began, the primary question most had regarding the Glacier Peak Grizzlies was: Who?
Well, Glacier Peak need no longer be concerned about its anonymity.
The second-year school may have entered the tournament a nobody, but it concluded it a champion as the Grizzlies claimed the title with a dramatic 2-1 overtime victory over the Mount Rainier Rams on Saturday afternoon at Harry E. Lang Stadium.
Shane Miller scored the championship-winning goal in the third minute of the second overtime period, and Glacier Peak rallied from behind to take the top prize in the schools’ first trip to state.
“It feels great,” Glacier Peak senior tri-captain Robin Hryciuk said. “It’s my last game of my high school career and to win state is just incredible. It’s better than anything.”
The Grizzlies were the unlikeliest of champions. Glacier Peak came into the tournament with five defeats and little fanfare. Many of the Grizzlies’ opponents would have been hard pressed to locate the youthful school on a map.
But Glacier Peak (18-5) was up to the challenge this weekend, knocking off undefeated teams in both the semifinals and the finals.
“We kind of flew under the radar a little bit,” Glacier Peak coach Shannon Murray said. “We had a couple early losses in the year that were maybe more of a result of us gaining confidence than that we weren’t a good team. I think we showed we were a quality group.”
In Saturday’s championship game the Grizzlies fell behind 1-0 late in the first half. But Glacier Peak raised its level the longer the game went. Brian Holguin’s rocket free kick tied it early in the second half, and afterward the Grizzlies slowly gained control of play.
In overtime Glacier Peak’s victory seemed inevitable as the Grizzlies had more left in the tank than the Rams, and Miller finally ended it in the 88th minute. Joey Cheff streaked down the left sideline and crossed into the box, with the ball knocked down by a Mount Rainier defender right to Miller’s feet. Miller beat Rams goalkeeper Bryan Murray to the near post, setting off a 22-player Glacier Peak dogpile on the field.
“It’s unreal,” Miller said about scoring the championship-winning goal. “I can’t even believe it just happened. It’s going through my head and I can’t even believe I scored it.”
Arnoldo Jose Orozco scored the lone goal for Mount Rainier, which finished its season 19-1-2.
“It was a good final,” Mount Rainier coach Jerry Capodanno said. “It was entertaining, good passing, good tackles, it was great. There’s nothing for us to be ashamed of.”
Glacier Peak also managed to keep Rams star forward Darwin Jones in check. Jones terrorized Camas during Mount Rainier’s 3-2 victory in the semifinals. But the central defensive duo of Rylan Kautz and Jordan Steranka, with assistance from Hryciuk playing a holding-midfield role, prevented Jones from wriggling free.
“Everyone knows about Darwin,” Hryciuk said. “I’ve been playing with Darwin for six years in premier. We just decided to box him out, get four guys on him at all times and make sure he was at the center of it. He looked good, but we shut him down.”
Saturday’s victory capped a remarkable weekend for Glacier Peak. The Grizzlies won Friday’s semifinal against Capital in the 11th round of penalty kicks, and Glacier Peak prevailed with a freshman fill-in goalkeeper (Jesus Mendoza) getting the first two starts of his high school career.
“We do everything together,” Murray said, “whether it’s the guys on junior varsity or the guys on varsity, guys who play a lot of minutes or guys who don’t play a lot of minutes. I think that showed this weekend. We lost our goalkeeper (Andrew Weakley to a club tournament in Florida), and a kid who hadn’t played a lot of minutes stepped up and won us a championship. Eleven straight guys made penalty kicks (Friday).
“Guys committed to their jobs, whatever they were, and they did it all year. I can’t be more excited for them.”
The game was even during the first half with play cycling up and down the field, though the better scoring chances fell to Mount Rainier.
Then with time winding down in the half the Rams took the lead. In the 36th minute Kevin Bodle floated a free kick from midfield toward the penalty box. Jones flicked a header toward goal, and the bounce eluded players from both teams before falling into the path of Orozco. Orozco, who had come on as a substitute just moments earlier, slotted past Mendoza to give Mount Rainier a 1-0 lead going into the second half.
Early in the second half it appeared Mount Rainier would be the team to score again. But a thunderbolt from Holguin got Glacier Peak back on level terms. Gregor Troost won a free kick 30 yards out, and Holguin buried the ensuing shot into the left corner, making it 1-1 in the 50th minute.
Both teams got into threatening positions after that, but it remained 1-1 and headed into overtime.
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