EVERETT — Maybe for the rest of the season the Lake Stevens soccer team should be called the Zombie Vikings.
After coming back from the dead both Tuesday night in the Northwest District semifinals against Jackson and on Monday when the team found out that the 1-0 penalty-kick loss to Mariner from Saturday was being reversed due to an ineligible Marauder player, the name certainly applies.
The Vikings fell behind 1-0 at Everett Memorial Stadium Tuesday, but Lake Stevens used an 73rd minute goal from *Peter Otusanya to propel the team to a 2-1 triumph over Wesco South regular season champ Jackson and into the district finals.
The team that hugged and said its goodbyes Saturday night in a glum locker room is going to the state tournament — potentially as the No. 1 seed should Lake Stevens win the championship Thursday night at Edmonds Stadium.
Otusanya found out that the season wasn’t over during his first-period class Monday when teammate and fellow senior Jacob Baker shared the news.
“After he told me, I was telling him, ‘we can’t lose now that we have this opportunity,’” Otusanya said. “We have to take advantage of it.”
Saturday night after the heartbreaking loss to Mariner that went to 10 rounds of penalty kicks after a 0-0 tie, senior midfielder Ben Bylin sat alone on the Vikings’ home turf arms folded over his knees for what everyone thought was the last time in his high school uniform.
Monday before third period began Bylin was streaking through the halls of school yelling, “We’re not done!”
“(I can’t believe) the rollercoaster that this team has been on the last three days,” Lake Stevens coach Kit Shanholtzer said.
Shanholtzer knew something was up with the Marauders roster when one of his players recognized a Mariner player from his club team — but not from the time that Mariner faced Lake Stevens during the regular season. According to the Viking coach, the unidentified Mariner player tried out for the team and played in just one regular season game, which Shanholtzer thought made him ineligible for postseason play based on league rules. So he passed on the information to his athletic director to look into further, expecting nothing to come of it.
“It’s heartbreaking to get in like that,” the Vikings coach said, “but I’m glad that we got the opportunity.”
In the early going Tuesday, it didn’t look like they’d take advantage as Jackson controlled the run of play.
In the 17th minute, the T-Wolves’ Caleb Houvener streaked down the left sideline, and fought through three Vikings to get a shot off at the top of the penalty box. His sweet strike slid just inside the near post past the outstretched arms of Vikings keeper James Tanner.
Lake Stevens went 116 minutes of anemic and uninspired offensive soccer in the postseason without scoring before a Kyle Lawson strike gave the Viking attack a shot of adrenaline. In the 26th minute the senior midfielder took a free kick from the top corner of the penalty box, bending it around the wall of Jackson defenders and into the corner of the goal above the grasp of Jackson keeper Armando Huerta.
Suddenly the offense got its swagger back. Jackson went from dominant to passive and back again until an amazing back and forth that started in the 72nd minute.
Tanner, who moved into the field after being subbed by Brennen Countryman in goal, drilled a shot that bounced off the top of the crossbar and looked to have gone in the goal, but was cleared by Huerta. The Jackson goalie set up a long ball to Julio Ortiz who used his speed to earn a one-on-one with Countryman. The junior keeper barely extended his right foot to deflect an Ortiz shot free. After another shot, Countryman fed Otusanya deep down the left sideline.
“I got it and I felt like I wasn’t going to get it because the defender was in front of me but I took it off him and he fell over,” Otusanya said. “I cut inside and passed it into the far corner.”
The senior forward was trying to cross for a teammate, but the ball ended up inside the far post.
“That’s all you gotta do sometimes,” Otusanya said.
The Jackson sideline seemed shocked by the final outcome.
Instead of a guaranteed state berth, the Timberwolves have work left to do.
“It’s a lot more difficult road,” Jackson coach Brett Norton said. “We’ve got to win Thursday, then win Saturday. So it’s not the road that we wanted.
“We didn’t expect this, but we are still alive. Sometimes you have to fight a little bit harder.”
Though the road to state for Jackson will be tough, at least the T-Wolves don’t have to come back from the dead.
Jon Saperstein covers high school sports for The Herald, follow him on twitter @jonsap and contact him at jsaperstein@heraldnet.com.
*Correction, May 9, 2012: Peter Otusanya’s first name was incorrect in the orginal version of the story.
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