MARYSVILLE — Tuesday night’s showdown of unbeaten Wesco 3A boys soccer teams set up to be easily the biggest contest in Marysville Getchell’s history after the Chargers opened its inaugural season with four straight wins.
Shorewood, which carried a 3-0 record into kickoff, stole the Chargers big moment, and quickly. The Thunderbirds scored in the 3rd minute on the way to a 7-0 dismantling of Getchell on its home field.
It was a shocking outcome to players and coaches on both sides, but the end result may be the coming out party for Shorewood as the clear league favorite, though both teams are now tied atop the standings with 12 points. Shorewood coach Nathan Davis isn’t ready to crown his team quite yet, just halfway through the first time through the league schedule.
“I don’t know if it makes us the favorite,” Davis said. “We’ve only played four games. We’ve still got four to go. Anything can happen. You can lose a guy to injury. I know next time we play these guys, it’s going to be a completely different game. Right now I’m just happy to be where we are.”
The one guy Davis could least afford to lose to injury is most likely center midfielder Hayk Avanesyan. The senior notched his second-ever hat trick Tuesday and added an assist for good measure.
Avanesyan wasn’t ready to proclaim Shorewood the kings of the league dominated by rival Shorecrest and Glacier Peak the past two seasons, but he did feel that the night’s result makes a statement.
“It’s just four games right now,” Avanesyan said. “So far we are 4-0, so it has to say something about our game.”
Taj McChesney got the scoring going in the 3rd minute with a flick over MG keeper Anurag Cheema’s head thanks to the Avanesyan assist. Avanesyan made it 2-0 2 minutes later with an unassisted laser shot from 25 yards out to the far post.
Avanesyan’s second goal came in the 26th minute on a free kick. The third was a PK into the side netting that didn’t give MG’s backup keeper Dylan Gomez a chance. It was a dominating performance.
“He sets the tone,” Davis said of the best of his 11 seniors. “If he goes hard and he’s energetic, everyone else will follow that.”
The T-Birds travel to Everett Thursday to see if they can continue what has looked like the league’s best play of the season. Meanwhile Davis doesn’t think this year’s team is necessarily the best skilled team he’s coached.
“It’s my hardest working, most focused team,” the Shorewood coach said.
Meanwhile on the other sideline, Tuesday’s result was a wake-up call for the Chargers. When asked what his team learned after the game coach Geoff Kittle said somewhat tongue-in-cheek, “We need to defend better.”
Kittle was very complimentary of Shorewood, but felt the Chargers mistakes were fixable.
“There was a lot of simple breakdowns and they capitalized on all of them,” Kittle said. “We need to be more organized on defense and come out with more confidence.”
The area where Kittle seemed most disappointed was with his team’s initial intensity.
“(Shorewood) was ready to play and ready to go,” the MG coach said. “They played well as a team. We have to come in and be the team that’s ready to match that intensity. We really came out flat today and that wasn’t good.”
In addition to Avanesyan’s penalty kick, the Chargers yielded a penalty kick goal to Andreas Gobel in the 15th minute. Kittle felt his team uncharacteristically lost its cool on those occasions and paid the price since fouls occurred in the penalty box.
“We need calmer heads in those situations,” he said.
Daniel Han had a goal and an assist for Shorewood to post what would have been a big game if not for Avanesyan’s night. He scored in the 28th minute on an assist by Dodge Schaeffer and The T-Birds final goal came in the 60th minute when Han set up Owusu Fordjour with a pretty cross that Fordjour deftly dove for in front of the Charger goal.
Keepers Calvin Crawford and Daniel Nadeau combined on the cleansheet for the T-Birds.
At Marysville Getchell H.S.
Goals—McChesney (S) 1, Avanesyan (S) 3, Gobel (S) 1, Han (S) 1, Fordjour (S) 1. Assists—Schaeffer (S) 1, Avanesyan (S) 1, Han (S) 1. Goalkeepers—Marysville Getchell: Anurag Cheema. Shorewood: Daniel Nadeau, Calvin Crawford. Records—Shorewood 4-0 league, 4-0 overall. Marysville Getchell 4-1, 4-1.
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