EVERETT — The Kamiak High School boys soccer team knew it faced a tough task. But try as they might, the Knights weren’t quite able to pull off the upset.
In a back-and-forth game that kept the crowd at Goddard Stadium on the edge of its seat throughout, the Knights succumbed to a sudden-death goal in the second overtime as they fell to the Todd Beamer Titans 2-1 Friday night in the 4A state quarterfinals.
Luke Gregg scored the winning goal in the third minute of the second extra frame for Todd Beamer, the District 4 champion, which had lost only once all season. Dylan Alley also scored for the Titans (17-1-1), who advanced to face either Glacier Peak or Skyline in next Friday’s semifinals at Sparks Stadium.
Jason Kim scored for Kamiak (14-6-2), the District 1 No. 2, which came just short of reaching the state semis for the first time in school history.
“I think maybe we were a little underestimated going into this thing,” Kamiak coach Kosta Pitharoulis said. “Beamer has a very impressive record, so I felt going in we were a little bit of the underdogs. But having watched them play against Bothell, I knew we would match up well against them. It was too bad that it came down to overtime, but it could have gone the other way, too.”
In a game full of scoring chances at both ends of the field, it came down to a set piece in the second overtime. The Titans received a corner kick on the right, which Alley floated to the far post. Jacob Allen headed the ball back across goal, where Gregg was waiting at the opposite post to hammer the ball into the top of the net to send Todd Beamer to the semis.
But it could just as easily have been the Knights celebrating at the end of a game that saw both teams get more than 15 attempts on goal.
“We were getting behind their defenders pretty good,” Pitharoulis said. “I thought we were going to be able to slip one in there toward the end.”
It was a rough start for Kamiak, which found itself playing from behind less than three minutes into the game. Todd Beamer’s Zak Gregg brought an aerial through ball down with his chest, then flashed a shot across the goal from a tight angle on the right. A Kamiak defender deflected the ball toward the goal, where it may have crept over the line. Alley followed up to try and force the ball across the line just to make sure, and in the ensuing scrum the referee blew the whistle to award the goal, giving the Titans a 1-0 lead.
Kamiak had the better scoring chances the rest of the first half, with Andre’ Hamilton and Harrison Rohrbough each having shots go just wide, while Todd Beamer goalkeeper Brandon Locke made a fantastic one-handed save on a ball off a teammate’s head, and it looked like the Knights would go into halftime trailing. But in first-half stoppage time, Kamiak conjured up a tying goal. Cade Cooke’s long throw-in from the right was fumbled by Locke, and Kim was there to bundle the loose ball into the net to make it 1-1.
Both teams had good looks early in the second half, with Alley shooting into the side of the net when put free on goal on the left and Cooke having a point-blank header saved by Locke. Kamiak even had the ball in the Titans’ net following Soren Pehlivanian’s header, only for it to be ruled out for offsides. Then Todd Beamer had opportunities late, but couldn’t get a shot on target, and it headed to overtime.
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