MONROE — In Wesco North boys soccer, there are no preseason or non-league games; every game counts, every game matters.
Some more than others.
Seniors Austin Cohn and Shane McDivitt each scored goals on setpiece plays to lift the Monroe Bearcats to a 3-1 win over Snohomish Tuesday night in the season and league opener for both teams.
The triumphant roar at the final whistle — from both the Bearcats players and their fans on the home side of the stadium — said more about the meaning of the victory than any mark in today’s standings.
“Eleventh time was the charm,” Monroe head coach Ryan Schaeffer said. “That was the 11th time we played them since I’ve been coach here, and we finally beat them. … this is huge, huge.”
Both McDivitt and Cohn scored off free kicks in the first half, which Monroe dominated by keeping the ball in the Snohomish end of the field.
“We’ve never come close, really, to beating Snohomish,” McDivitt said. “It’s a very, very good feeling, to beat them at home.”
McDivitt’s goal came midway through the first half on a trick play. Both Cohn and McDivitt lined up as if to take the free kick, but Cohn swerved away at the last second and McDivitt sent the ball into the back of the net off the keeper’s hands.
“That was just made up on the spot,” McDivitt said. “(Cohn) was like, ‘Alright, I’ll run over it and you take it.’”
After an apparent McDivitt goal in the third minute was waved off because the Bearcats were offsides, Cohn found the net four minutes later, rifling the ball into the upper right corner past the Panthers keeper.
“This was a really good accomplishment for our team,” Cohn said. “We worked really hard to earn it.”
Monroe took a 2-0 lead into halftime, but the Panthers came out attacking after the break. Without a Snohomish mistake and a stellar defensive play by Bearcats senior Danny Barajas, the end result may have been different.
The Panthers scored an own goal early in the second half to push the Bearcats’ margin to 3-0, but Snohomish kept up the pressure and midway through the period Spencer Helfrich sent a free kick through a scrum of players to the left of the Monroe goal.
The ball got past Bearcats keeper Miles Garman, but Barajas was there to quickly clear the ball out of the mouth of the goal.
“Danny Barajas making that clear off the goal line was more important than one of the goals we scored,” Schaeffer said. “That’s just like scoring a goal in my opinion because he took one out of their net.”
Freshman Reilly Cross scored the Panthers’ goal, with an assist from junior Brendon Gundry, in the closing minutes of the game.
“We had two starting players from last year,” Snohomish head coach Dan Pingrey said. “They were nervous … the second half, we were moving (the ball) and we were dominating that half. We were unlucky, it wasn’t going in.”
With the Panthers sending extra players into the Monroe end during the second half, the Bearcats were able to keep clearing the ball to eat time off the clock and seal the win.
“I’m so proud of my boys, for how the way they worked,” Schaeffer said. “They’ve never given up, they’ve always wanted more. … This is a great night for these guys.”
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