EVERETT — After losing to Lake Stevens in the district tournament a year ago, Jackson girls soccer coach Michael Bartley wanted his girls to remember that feeling and use it for future motivation.
The tactic paid dividends Tuesday.
The Timberwolves got a late goal from Megan Cooley to beat Lake Stevens in a semifinal game of the 4A District 1 tournament at Everett Memorial Stadium Tuesday night and advance back to the state tournament after missing it last season.
“Last year we fell short and it was the first time in quite a few years,” Bartley said. “And I remember that game and we told them, ‘We gotta remember this and next time, when we get here, we have to win it.”
The win didn’t come easily, however. Lake Stevens, the No. 2 seed from the North, battled Jackson to a scoreless stalemate for the first 72 minutes. But in the 73rd minute, Jackson senior Cara Wegner got loose down the right side and booted a perfectly placed cross to the head of Cooley, who launched herself into the air and headed it past the Lake Stevens goalkeeper for the game’s lone goal.
“Somebody was going to have to have a great goal to win this game and that’s what that was,” Lake Stevens head coach Andy Knutson said of Cooley’s tally.
“There’s not much you can do to stop that.”
Jackson withstood a late charge by the Vikings, including a frantic scramble in front of the goalmouth that was finally cleared by goalie Whitney Carter with less than a minute to play, to pull out the win.
Jackson (12-3-2) plays Edmonds-Woodway for the district championship at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Snohomish H.S.
Knowing his team would have to shut down Wegner to have any chance at winning, Knutson marked the Jackson star forward with one of his better defenders, Alicia Amundson. The tactic worked for most of the night as Wegner was frustrated whenever she got near the Vikings goal.
Bartley countered by shifting Wegner out to the side more instead of having her clog up the middle.
“We tried to move her outside so that she could isolate the mark and then she could lose it,” Bartley said. “Whereas in the middle she was getting beat up and doubled all the time.”
It was one of those runs down the right side that ended up in the game-winning goal.
“We were making sure we had all of our runs going up top,” said Wegner. “All forwards were moving, we weren’t just playing our normal position: wide, middle, wide. So it just happened that I was outside and she was inside and she finished it.”
With the ball coming at her, Cooley said she just let her soccer instincts take over. “You can’t really think at the point,” Cooley said. “You just rely on what you’ve been doing for a while.”
The Jackson defense, which gave up four goals in its season finale to Edmonds-Woodway, was back to its usual self. The Timberwolves gave up just six goals in league play this season.
“That’s the defense we’ve had all year,” Bartley said. “I don’t know what to say about the Edmonds-Woodway game. It was a game that didn’t matter and that’s how we played.”
Lake Stevens, which is back to full health after battling a number of injuries down the stretch, faces off against rival Snohomish in the third-place game at 5:30 p.m. The winner of that game must win a play-in game against the Kingco 4A third-place team on Saturday to reach state.
“Hopefully we’re playing Saturday,” Knutson said. “That’s been the goal all season. If we’re playing Saturday then we achieved what we wanted to.”
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