SNOHOMISH — In a season of special moments, the last moment was the most special of all for Blake Crutchfield.
At the recent Class 4A state championship game, the Snohomish soccer team overcame a 1-0 halftime deficit for a 3-1 victory against Central Valley. When the final whistle sounded, and as the Panthers began celebrating a second consecutive state title, Crutchfield remembers letting out “the biggest sigh of relief.”
“With everything I’d worked for and everything the team had worked for, all that hard work had paid off,” explained Crutchfield, a senior midfielder. “And then getting to win it with that group of guys, and seeing them all lift the trophy and seeing the happiness it brought to them, that was the real joy.”
In a season of highlights, he said, “that moment tops all the other moments.”
Snohomish was blessed this season with a roster of exceptional talent and experience. Indeed, several of the Panthers are very deserving of postseason honors. But on a squad of standouts, there is simply no mistaking Crutchfield’s far-reaching impact with his skill, savvy and leadership.
“You could consider him the glue of the team,” said teammate and good friend Gus Baxter.
“He was an integral part of us winning two state championships,” agreed Panthers coach Dan Pingrey.
For all those reasons, Crutchfield is The Herald’s 2015 Soccer Player of the Year.
Pingrey has worked with many elite players in 15 seasons as Snohomish’s head coach — a stretch that includes four state titles — and in his mind “Crutch is right up there with the best of them.”
“At the end of four years (of high school),” Pingrey added, “he’s become one of most complete players we’ve had in a long time.”
Crutchfield grew up with two older brothers who played soccer, so it was natural that he would also take up the game. As a toddler he liked knocking a ball around — “My mom said I started playing soccer even before I could walk,” he said with a smile — and he was playing 3-on-3 micro soccer as a preschooler.
In grade school he joined the Snohomish United U11 team, and he continued with many of the same teammates and coaches through last fall’s U18 season. Among his teammates were fellow Panthers Baxter, Kristian Barney, Eric Jones, Josh Dombal, Jack McCunn, Alex Fairhurst and Tanner Corrie.
“We’ve all grown up knowing each other and that really helped the team chemistry,” Crutchfield said. “And being able to play with all these guys (for several years of club and school soccer) is really what made the team so great. … We’re brothers basically.”
Still, this past season was not without challenges. Midway through the schedule, and in successive games, the Panthers had a tie against Lake Stevens and losses to Kamiak and Cascade. Pingrey, his assistants and the team engaged in a lot of talking and analysis, and eventually some players ended up in different positions. Among them, Barney moved from midfield to striker where he flourished, and Crutchfield switched from defense to center midfield.
Crutchfield’s play as a midfielder was decisive in the season’s second half, Pingrey said. His ability to win balls, to distribute to teammates, to defend and make tackles, and to be an on-field leader “really helped us through some tough times. … When you get guys like Crutch that love the game and love to compete, in a lot of ways they just will everybody else to get better.”
Among Crutchfield’s many gifts is an ability to make long throw-ins. In the offensive end he can deliver throws in front of the net, much like a corner kick, to create scoring chances for his teammates. Of his 17 assists this season, Pingrey said, “I think 11 or 12 of those were off throws.”
“Whenever people think of Blake, they automatically think of his long throw-ins,” Baxter said. “But that’s just one tool in his arsenal of weapons. He was the one kid on the field who would go into a tackle harder than anybody else. He could put his head down and drive the ball like no other. And he wins headers at the professional level.
“If I was to say that we couldn’t have (won the championship) without him, that wouldn’t be completely honest,” Barney said. “But he definitely played a huge part. And his leadership alone was class.”
Throughout the season, the Panthers faced opponents determined to knock off the defending champs. It made the push to a second title much more difficult than the first, Crutchfield said.
“Once we won that first one, that put a giant target on our backs,” he said. “(Other teams would) say, ‘Hey, they’re the state champions of last year … we’re going to give them a game.’ No matter who we stepped on the field with, they were going to give us their best game and they really made us work for the win. But I think ultimately that prepared us to repeat our run back to (a championship).”
Crutchfield will play next season at Montana State University Billings, a Division II program. He is excited for the chance to play college soccer, but saddened that his years of Snohomish soccer — both at the high school and with his club — are ending.
“It’s kind of hard to believe that I won’t be able to play a full 80 or 90 minutes out on that turf field (at Snohomish High School) again,” he said. “I’ve played on it my whole life.”
But as he moves on, he leaves behind a legacy of excellence for future Panthers to admire and hope to match.
“As he’s grown up, he’s been a huge asset as far as his leadership role,” Pingrey said. “And then technically his game has just gotten better and better. So his maturity as a person and as a player has just been fantastic.”
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