By Scott M. Johnson
Herald Writer
FEDERAL WAY – It was purely unintentional. In fact, Dan Pingrey swears his words were misunderstood.
But Pingrey, the Snohomish High School boys soccer coach, did something akin to placing a burr on a grizzly bear’s seat. And his team paid the price.
Using one of Pingrey’s earlier quotes as motivation, unbeaten Decatur took out its frustrations on the Panthers on Friday evening, recording a 3-0 victory in a 4A quarterfinal game at Federal Way High School.
The statement in question came earlier this season, when Pingrey was asked by this publication about the road to the state championship. The Snohomish head coach said he wanted to face Decatur, the defending champion, somewhere along the line. Having read the quote in an online edition of The Herald, Decatur coach Jimmy McAlister used it as some sort of locker room motivation heading into Friday’s game.
“They wanted us. The boys were aware of that,” McAlister said smugly after his Gators scored three first-half goals in a one-sided affair. “It’s amazing: in high school, and they can read.
“These guys have a lot of pride, and they’re not going to be intimidated. We can be beaten, just like any team, but we’re not going to be intimidated by anyone. (Pingrey’s statement) got them going. That was our quickest start in a while. We came out ready to play.”
The Gators extended their unbeaten streak to 42 games behind two goals from star forward Alex Chursky within the first 13 minutes. While they played an inspired game from the outset, Pingrey wasn’t sure what the fuss was all about.
“I laugh about that,” Pingrey said of McAlister’s comments. “The Herald asked me what I thought about a state championship. I said, ‘The state championship’s great, but Decatur’s the best. If you’ve got to play the best to get to the state championship, that’s what you’ve got to do.’ Decatur’s the best, so why not play the best? That’s all I said, and they tried to make something out of it.
“I’ll say it again: If you want to be a state champion, you should want to beat the best. Decatur is the best. I didn’t say we were going to go kick their (behinds). I just said we wanted to play them.”
The Gators (18-0-2) proved that once again Friday night, playing with such dominance over the first 40 minutes that the game was realistically over by halftime.
Chorsky, the two-time South Puget Sound League player of the year and a Seattle University recruit, used a combination of speed, finesse and power to create numerous scoring opportunities throughout the first half.
Forget Attack of the Clones. The most impressive sequel on Friday night was the one starring Chursky. In a one-man show that has been recreated on many opponents this season, Chursky shredded the Snohomish defense time and time again for two goals before the game was even 13 minutes old.
He dribbled past two defenders along the left wing, then poked a well-placed shot into the bottom right corner of the net to score the game’s first goal in the third minute. He was the beneficiary of a beautiful pass from teammate Christian Scholze 10 minutes later, this time tapping the pass into the bottom left corner of the net for a 2-0 lead.
Chorsky was originally credited with a third goal with 9:32 remaining in the first half, but a Snohomish defender actually tipped in a shot from Decatur’s Nick McCluskey for an own goal.
“Speed-wise, we haven’t seen anybody like that,” Pingrey said. “He stepped it up.”
Pingrey successfully used freshman Marcus Berry to mark Chorsky in the second half, which kept the game from getting out of hand.
Decatur out-shot Snohomish 11-1 in the first half, and only an impressive outing from Panthers goalkeeper Bryan Harrison kept the Panthers within striking distance. He made eight saves over the first 40 minutes, including a point-blank stop on Chorsky in the 35th minute to thwart what looked like it might be the Decatur senior’s fourth goal of the half.
After the lackluster first half, Snohomish showed more offense during the final 40 minutes. Juniors Garrett Heinemann and Sean Mitchell each had shots on Decatur goalkeeper Kile Peloza, who then stole two scoring opportunities from Snohomish sophomore Justin Abel over the final 15 minutes to preserve the shutout.
Afterward, the Panthers (13-2-4) were baffled about what Decatur used for motivational tactics in the game.
“At the beginning of the game, (McAlister) probably mentioned the newspaper thing like 10 times,” Snohomish senior Justin Pettit said. “You just have to let it not get to you. Me personally, it didn’t affect me. I don’t think it did for anyone, so, so what.
” … I mean, there are good teams in the English Premier League, but they can still be humble.”
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