MOUNT VERNON – The Mount Vernon Bulldogs boys soccer team used its quickness to score twice in the first 10 minutes and turned up the defense to post a 6-1 victory over Mountlake Terrace in a first round Class 4A District 1 loser-out playoff game Monday night at Mount Vernon High School.
With the victory Mount Vernon improves to 12-4-1 overall and faces Mariner in another loser-out game tonight at 7 p.m. at Goddard Stadium in Everett.
Mount Vernon scored first when Rudy Martinez took a deflection off of a Mountlake Terrace defender from about 20 yards out and sent it into the far right corner of the net for a goal at the four-minute mark.
“Rudy got a good bounce,” Mount Vernon Tony Dabbs said. “It was an absolute laser.”
Mount Vernon struck again in the ninth minute. Kyle Haberly took a throw-in by Justin Burns deep in Terrace territory and used his head to flick the ball past the Hawks goalkeeper to give Mount Vernon a 2-0 advantage.
“We seem to be scoring in pairs a lot this season,” Dabbs said.
The Bulldogs scored three more goals in the first half. Burns got a goal in the 33rd minute and teammate Sean Connor closed out the first-half scoring with a goal in the 35th minute, giving Mount Vernon a cushy 4-0 lead.
“We played good tonight,” Mount Vernon senior midfielder Haberly said.
Mount Vernon forward Esteban Padilla’s goal and Haberly’s second goal of the game and 14th of the season closed out the Bulldogs’ scoring.
While its offense was clicking, Mount Vernon’s defense was solid as usual.
According to Dabbs, Bulldogs goalkeeper John Gilbert “saw just five or six legitimate shots” before the Mount Vernon coach began substituting en masse with 15 minutes remaining in the game.
“The defense was fantastic,” Dabbs said. “They’ve been solid after we got the first few games under our belt. Our goals against average is right around 1.19 per game.”
The Bulldogs now face a Mariner team that lost just two games this season.
“Mariner is a good team,” Haberly said. “We played them last year in districts. It’ll be a tough game.”
Senior Joel Dalton scored the lone goal for Mountlake Terrace (7-10) at the 75-minute mark in his final game as a Hawk.
At Mount Vernon
Goals-MV: Martinez, Haberly 2, Burns, Connor, Padilla. MT: Dalton. Assists-MV: Burns, Haberly, Gilbert, Coffey, Connor. Goalkeepers-MV: Gilbert, Richendrser. MT: Tappel. Records-Mountlake Terrace: 7-10 overall. Mount Vernon: 12-4-1.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
