By Chris Trujillo
Herald Writer
EDMONDS – Reserve goalkeeper Eric Marty fought off eight shots to earn his first shutout of the season Friday night, while leading Meadowdale to a 2-0 victory over Bellingham in a first-round game of the 3A District 1 playoffs at Edmonds District Stadium.
Meadowdale, which improved its overall record to 10-3-4, will play Sehome at 8 p.m. Monday at Bellingham Civic Stadium. Bellingham, which lossed for just the second time in its last seven games, will play on Wednesday. Its opponent has yet to be decided.
“Eric (Marty) had a great game,” Meadowdale coach Darrell Hamilton said. “He’s played maybe 10 minutes at goal this entire season. He was really excited to play back there and he really came through for us.”
It was Meadowdale’s eighth shutout of the season.
Lamar Anderson sneaked a perfect timing pass through his defender’s legs, finding a crossing Sean Crane, who beat Bellingham goalkeeper David Dorn one-on-one seven minutes into the first half to give Meadowdale an early 1-0 lead.
“I’ve been saying this all season. Playing 4A has helped us,” Hamilton said. “Our guys are really young. This is all new to about 75 percent of the guys.”
The Mavericks received an insurance goal late in the game off the head of Yaw Agyei from 9 yards out to seal the game.
“We are such a young team, but we’ve been playing better and better each game,” Anderson said.
Bellingham missed a golden opportunity to tie the score 11 minutes into the second half thanks to the gutsy play of Marty, who started because Meadowdale’s ace goalkeeper Ryan Bluhm received a one-game suspension after receiving a red card in a loss to Edmonds-Woodway earlier in the week.
Marty raced 10 yards from of his goalkeeping position to take the ball off the foot of Mark Harrell, who had broken from a crowd 20 yards out.
It would prove to be Bellingham’s only bona fide scoring opportunity in the 40-minute contest.
Meadowdale, which held Bellingham shotless in the first half and allowed just eight total, used quick streaking forwards and precision passes to apply pressure on the Bellingham defense throughout the game.
Nick Norton, after breaking free down the near side of the field, just missed giving the Mavericks a two-goal lead when his low-flying shot bounced off the farside goal post 30 minutes into the second half.
Dorn deflected a Norton low-liner from the left side 10 minutes after Meadowdale’s first goal, to fend off the Mavericks’ second legitimate scoring opportunity.
Although the Mavericks spent the majority of the final 20 minutes of the first half inside the Bellingham end, they couldn’t piece together anything substantial.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
