By DAN SARGENT
Herald Writer
SNOHOMISH – The Lake Stevens Vikings season came to an end Tuesday night in a heartbreaking 1-0 lost to Seattle Prep in the Class 3A state playoffs.
Seattle Prep scored in the 74th minute of the game when Lexi de Turenne lobbed a shot over Vikings goalkeeper Maegan Simnowitz to shatter the Vikings dreams of advancing.
The Vikings were hosting a home game at Snohomish Stadium which is a long and wide turf field. This was the Vikings third time playing on turf all season.
The Viking’s touches were a bit off in the first half with touches bouncing away from them that should have been collected.
The turf made the Vikings work twice as hard to gather the ball because the ball was not going to slow down on the fast field.
The Vikings gathered themselves to mount an attack in the second half. In the 52nd minute sophomore Erin Nissen hit junior Amy Carnell, who just missed the goal on the left side.
The Vikings tried again a minute later off a corner when senior Kelly Bay just headed the ball over the crossbar.
Senior defensive back Mandy Brookes prevented a goal in the 65th minute, Seattle Prep shot the ball past Simnowitz hitting Brookes, who cleared it out of danger keeping the Vikings’ chances alive.
Behind 1-0, the Vikings tried to push the ball down the field as fast as they could, but the field had taken its toll on the Vikings. The Vikings looked just out of energy.
As Seattle Prep celebrated the victory, the tears flowed for the Vikings.
“Not the way we wanted to go out, but we did what no other team had done and that is we won districts and got to state,” Brookes said.
“I had a blast with these girls this season,” Vikings coach Diane Mattingly said, “I couldn’t have done it with another group.”
“They never have experienced a losing season,” Mattingly said of her seniors, “I got leadership out of all eight of them.”
“Kelly Bay told me that I never expected to lose.” Mattingly said.
“We will miss them next year and it will be extremely hard to replace them,” Mattingly said.
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