EVERETT — Up until the final minutes, the Jackson boys soccer team had taken care of business and nursed a 2-0 lead over Bothell. The ninth-seeded Cougars found a way, and downed the No. 2 Timberwolves 3-2 in double overtime in a winner-to-state 4A District 1/2 playoff matchup.
In the 80th minute, Bothell senior midfielder Zachary Mosher headed in a goal off a corner kick to force overtime, and in the second extra frame, it was sophomore Matthew Hagberg who sealed the deal with a penalty kick in the final minute, stopping Jackson (10-8-1) a game short of a state tournament berth.
“You love this game for the passion it brings in winning and losing,” Timberwolves coach Eddie Fernandez said. “Sometimes, that passion is elation like Bothell is feeling, and the other side is how we’re feeling right now. I feel bad for them, they’ve had a great season and they’ve represented Jackson High School greatly.”
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Jackson collected goals in the 32nd and 38th minute from sophomore Ian Friedrichsen and senior Vitaliy Nagornyy to build a 2-0 lead at intermission, while goalkeeper Ben Ferguson, a senior, came up with an important save with under two minutes remaining before the half that snuffed out any momentum from Bothell.
For much of the second half, the Cougars (8-6-3) controlled the ball and kept navigating into scoring range. Jackson battled on the defensive side, sending away Bothell’s drives to the goal, but the Wolves couldn’t muster another score the rest of the way to gain the needed breathing room at the end.
“We had a couple of opportunities to get that third goal,” Fernandez said. “We knew after halftime that the next one was gonna be huge. To get that third goal in there would have been big for us to take advantage, but we didn’t. … As they say, that two to nothing lead is always dangerous. I hate cliches, but they’re cliches for a reason, and in this case, it came back to bite us.”
Bothell’s first score came in the 57th minute off a penalty kick from junior Myles Nafe, which helped swing things the Cougars’ way. Hagberg’s game-winning penalty kick in the second OT completed the gutsy comeback.
“We were seconds away from making the trip we wanted, you gotta give credit to a good Bothell team that never quit and played the full 80 minutes,” Fernandez said.
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