Lake Stevens’ soccer team survives again

SNOHOMISH — At some point this postseason, Lake Stevens is going to need a complete game if the Vikings hope to keep winning.

For now, however, the Vikings are getting by despite early-game struggles. Last week, Lake Stevens overcame an early deficit to win a district title, and on Tuesday night, the Vikings again fell behind early, and again they rallied, getting a 3-2 win over Bellarmine Prep in the first round of the Class 4A state soccer tournament.

As in their district championship victory over Marysville-Pilchuck, the Vikings trailed the Lions from the Narrows League in the early going. Last week, it was a second-minute goal that put them behind, and on Tuesday, Lake Stevens were down 1-0 before the game was three minutes old.

But thanks to their second-half comeback four days earlier, the Vikings were confident they could rally. They did just that behind a pair of goals by Nic Rowe, and much-needed insurance goal by Tanner Sellars.

The result is a trip to the quarterfinals for the Vikings (16-2-1), who play Skyline — 4-3 winners over Puyallup on Tuesday.

“We felt Friday night was a win-win situation,” Lake Stevens coach Scott Flanders said. “We won the game, obviously, but we were able to pocket another set of experiences to fall back on if we needed to in the state tournament. We were very happy with the outcome Friday for two parts: winning a district title and getting a really gritty performance.”

The win was slightly tarnished by a foot injury to Rowe, suffered not long after he scored his second goal. Although the junior forward said he felt like he might have broken his foot, he has no plans on missing his team’s next game.

“I’m still playing,” he said to his coach, walking away with a limp. “I don’t care.”

Rowe tied the score just before halftime, taking advantage of a costly error by a Bellarmine Prep defender. Mark Russell took a throw-in from near midfield and a Lions defender attempting to head the ball clear instead had it glance off his head towards the Bellarmine goal. Rowe ran down the errant header and beat Bellarmine keeper Bryce Leach for the tying goal.

Rowe put the Vikings up for good in the 62nd minute, again taking advantage of a mistake. On a long ball played into the Bellarmine box, Leach left the goal thinking he could beat Rowe to the ball. Rowe got there first, however, and chipped a shot from the corner of the box past Leach and into the open net.

“The kid’s an absolute sniper,” Flanders said of Rowe. “He’s a bona fide goal scorer, that’s all he does. He didn’t play for us last year — he wanted to focus on his club team — and he’s come back this year and just taken control of the league and taken control of scoring goals. He’s been a fabulous addition to our program.”

Sellars made it 3-1 from close range off of a rebound in the 72nd minute, and that goal turned out to be pivotal. Just a minute later, Bellarmine Prep answered with a goal that had Lake Stevens players and coaches upset because they thought Alex Vogt, who scored, was offside when the pass was made.

“I don’t think it needed to be that close at the end,” Flanders said.

In the end, however, that non-call didn’t matter, because the Vikings were able to hold off a late flurry of chances from Bellarmine Prep, including one sequence in which a Lions’ header hit off the goal post and another shot that had to be cleared off the line by Lake Stevens defender Donavan Granston. Granston also saved a goal early in the second half when a ball appeared headed for the net.

The Lions, who were in their seventh straight state tournament, were eliminated in the first round for just the second time in that stretch. Bellarmine Prep won titles in 2004 and 2008, and in 2005, the Lions beat Lake Stevens 3-0 in the first round.

“We played Bellarmine five years ago, went down there, and we were just shell-shocked,” Flanders said. “We lost 3-0, so we knew we needed to be on our game.”

And even though the Vikings weren’t on their game quite from the opening whistle, they were, for the second game in a row, good enough for another victory.

“We know that if we stay calm that we can push through it and win,” Rowe said. “We just kept playing soccer, and that’s all we needed to do.”

Herald Writer John Boyle: jboyle@heraldnet.com.