LYNNWOOD — The coach that guided them to four state playoff appearances in six seasons may be wearing a different hat these days, but the Meadowdale Mavericks proved they can still play girls soccer.
Meadowdale beat the Mike Bartley-coached Jackson Timberwolves 2-1 Tuesday night at the Lynnwood Turf Field in a non-conference game. First, the Mavericks mugged their former All-Area coach of the year by handing him his first loss at Jackson. Then, they hugged him. Bartley, who has coached the Jackson boys team for several years, made the difficult decision to accept the girls job after six strong seasons at Meadowdale so he could have both coaching jobs at the same school. Leaving may have been the only thing more difficult than coaching against his former players.
"It was way too weird," Bartley said. "It was just strange. You know each one. You know them personally. You’re rooting for them at the same time you’re trying to beat them."
The Mavericks (3-2-1), who are unbeaten since losing their first two games of the season, couldn’t help taking a few jabs at their former coach.
"Bartley, what was the score of that game?" quipped sophomore midfielder Amanda Sanguinet.
Comments like that, perhaps even more than the hugs, showed Bartley there are no hard feelings.
"I really wanted to win the game," said junior forward Keesha Baumler, who tapped in a cross from Jessica Duty in the 37th minute to give Meadowdale a 2-0 lead. "That was just so we could say we beat our last year’s coach. It was exciting.
"He’s a really nice guy, and we’re all still pretty close."
Nice guy or not, the Mavericks wasted little time putting Bartley’s new team in a hole.
In the seventh minute, center midfielder Lauren Gifford sent a pass to forward Courtney Hughes. She settled the ball 30 yards away from the Jackson goal and hit a hard shot that wrapped over the outstretched arms of Timberwolves goalkeeper Jennifer Shropshire and under the crossbar for a 1-0 advantage.
Meadowdale’s new coach, Sean Griffin, said that goal helped settle some nerves.
"I had to calm them down (before the game), and say ‘Look, this is preseason,’" said Griffin, whose team will face Jackson on Oct. 16 in a game that will count in the Western Conference North Division standings. " ‘Let’s work on playing our game and not worry about who we are playing.’ They played hard because they wanted to play well against him."
Jackson (4-1) out-shot the Mavericks 7-3 in the first half, but Meadowdale countered quantity with quality. All three of Meadowdale’s shots gave the Timberwolves problems, with the first and third attempts reaching the net.
Duty, who came off the bench, took a pass on a free kick and dribbled down her right sideline to set up Meadowdale’s second goal. She sent a scorching ball to the left side of the net, where Baumler stuck her foot out to bump it in for a 2-0 advantage.
"We work well together," Baumler said. "Last game, we did the same thing. We’ve known each other since we were babies."
The Mavericks played without two injured starters, goalkeeper Tricia McMillan and forward Brittney Doran. Brooke Horman moved up from the junior varsity team and made six saves.
Jackson finally broke through in the 72nd minute with a goal from sophomore midfielder Dani Oster. Griffin took the blame for the goal, saying he made too many changes on defense late in the game. It was only the second goal allowed by the Mavericks since they permitted five combined in losses to Bishop Blanchet and Seattle Prep.
"It’s taken us six games to really start playing well," Griffin said. "The first two games were really ugly."
The Mavericks couldn’t have picked a better night to put it all together.
Goals—Meadowdale: Hughes, Baumler. Goalkeepers—Jackson: Shropshire, Saucerman. Meadowdale: Horman. Records—Jackson 4-1 overall. Meadowdale 3-2-1. |
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