Terrace’s bid for state berth ends in PKs against Ferndale

SHORELINE — Penalty kicks ended a tight back-and-forth battle between the Ferndale and Mountlake Terrace girls soccer teams on Thursday.

The Golden Eagles edged out the Terrace Hawks 2-1 after two scoreless overtimes in a Class 3A District 1 tournament winner-to-state, loser-out game that went down to the wire at Shoreline Stadium.

Ferndale converted five PKs to the Hawks’ four after a physical 90 minutes of play as Terrace was eliminated from state playoff contention in heartbreaking fashion.

“PKs are always terrible,” Terrace coach George Dremousis said. “They’re such a crapshoot. I’ve won some big games on PKs and I’ve lost plenty of big ones too. It is what it is. The girls played well, two good teams, that’s soccer.”

The Hawks delivered the first strike in the 13th minute, as junior Claire August capitalized deep in the keeper’s box and punched in the score off a bobbled save from Golden Eagles goalie Jaiden O’Neill.

August misfired on a breakaway in the 32nd minute for a chance to go up two scores.

Ferndale’s Emily Holdridge snuck in a long shot in the 38th minute with a shot that ricocheted off a defender and into the goal.

The squads traded lengthy and scrappy back-and-forth trips down the field until the end of regulation.

“Ferndale’s a really physical team,” Dremousis said. “They play a really physical brand of soccer.”

Mountlake Terrace freshman keeper Jordyn Stokes kept the Hawks alive with crunch-time saves in the 64th and 89th minute. A missed free kick in 87th minute was one of the last chances Terrace had before the contest turned to penalty kicks.

“It’s just finishing,” Dremousis said. “We’ve had a rough time finishing down the stretch of the season at times. We were creating the opportunities, and as a coach you’d like to think if you create enough opportunities, you’ll get ‘em. It’s just chances that didn’t go our way.”

The Hawks (11-6-2) ended the year sending off seven seniors.

“The girls played well, good season,” Dremousis said. “We’ll come back next year. We do lose a lot of seniors. … But we’ll rebuild, we’ll come back.”