LAKEWOOD — During the Class 4A state playoffs the Lake Stevens High School boys soccer team made a habit out of dramatic late comebacks.
But that well finally dried up as there was no comeback in the cards Saturday afternoon.
Lake Stevens was unable to produce one last moment of comeback magic, and the Vikings fell short of the state championship with a 1-0 defeat to the Stadium Tigers at Harry E. Lang Stadium.
In a game that pitted the top-ranked Tigers against the second-ranked Vikings for all the marbles, a first-half goal by Stadium’s Dylan Gaydosh was the decisive blow.
“We just had one breakdown and they capitalized on it,” Lake Stevens coach Scott Flanders said. “Overall the memories of this season are more than any trophy. It’s something nobody can take away from us and it’s just an outstanding group of guys.”
Falling behind was nothing new for Lake Stevens. The Vikings fell behind in both the first round against Bellarmine Prep and the quarterfinals against Skyline before staging late comebacks. Therefore, Lake Stevens was undeterred after falling behind again Saturday against Stadium.
However, Stadium was not so accommodating. The Tigers gave Lake Stevens no openings as they played a flawless game defensively, and a third comeback never materialized for the Vikings.
“I think it was very flawless,” was Stadium coach John Baretta’s assessment of his team’s performance.
“I’m telling you, the players were ready,” Baretta added. “I thought every single player, both on the field and on the bench, was ready.”
Lake Stevens was once again without leading goal scorer Nic Rowe, who suffered a broken bone in his foot earlier in the postseason. The Vikings were able to overcome Rowe’s absence in earlier games, but they had difficulty generating any offense against Stadium.
Lake Stevens finished the season 18-3-1. The second-place finish is the best in school history.
“I thought at times we were going to continue (the comeback trend) today, I thought we might get a second-half equalizer, and it just didn’t happen,” Flanders said. “We just ran out of gas here at the end of the season.
“But this team will go down as the best team ever in the school’s history.”
Stadium controlled the balance of play throughout. The Tigers could have gone ahead 14 minutes into the game, but Gaydosh hesitated a moment when the ball broke for him in the goal box, allowing the Lake Stevens defense to recover.
But Gaydosh did find the net in the 30th minute. A free kick into the box pinballed before bouncing into the path of Gaydosh free on goal. Gaydosh delicately lifted the ball over Lake Stevens goalkeeper Tanner Eney and it nestled into the back of the net, giving Stadium a 1-0 lead.
The Vikings thought they’d tied it in the 36th minute when Josh Lund tucked home Jake Orwiler’s perfect free kick at the far post. However, the goal was disallowed because of offsides, and it remained 1-0 going into the second half.
In the second half it was more of the same as the Vikings never discovered the offensive formula. Even a switch of formation to playing three forwards didn’t do the trick as Stadium kept Lake Stevens under wraps. The Tigers then successfully salted the final five minutes away deep in Lake Stevens territory to avoid any hint of a Vikings comeback.
“They’re a big, solid team,” Flanders said of the Tigers. “They didn’t make very many mistakes, and when you don’t make mistakes in a soccer game it’s pretty tough to beat you. That’s why they’ve been ranked No. 1 all year. We knew it was going to take a pretty special game for us to beat them and it just didn’t happen today.”
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