SHORELINE

Shorecrest’s dominance of its crosstown rival Shorewood continued with a 3-0 win April 6 at Shoreline Stadium.

Senior midfielder Elliot Richards scored in the 32nd minute and senior forward Mike Ehrhart added two second-half goals. Andrew McDonald earned the shutout in goal for the Scots, his sixth of the season.

The Scots beat the Thunderbirds 2-0 March 16 to complete the season sweep.

This group of Shorecrest seniors never lost to Shorewood, with the last Shorewood win coming in 2000.

“It feels good going out not losing to them once,” Richards said.

Shorecrest-Shorewood is always a game played with a lot of emotion on both sides, but the emotions were largely kept under control this time. No yellow or red cards were issued compared to a soft red card and more than a half-dozen yellows handed out in the earlier meeting. The referee and the players kept things under control this time.

Richards dribbled through the defense in the center of the field and put the Scots on the board late in the first half.

“Jonathon Cho gave it to me but it got intercepted and before the defender could clear it I poked it away from him and took it on goal,” Richards said.

In the second half, Shorecrest senior forward Jake Mason dribbled out of the corner and beat the defense and crossed it to Ehrhart who punched it past Shorewood goalkeeper Andrew Igl in the 44th minute.

“They go for the legs as well as the ball but it’s like if you move the ball they’ll go for your legs but if you jump over their legs then you have a free run,” said Mason, on how he beat the defenders.

Shorecrest coach Drew Thompson said he wasn’t particularly pleased with his team’s first half, but Mason’s play gave the offense the spark it needed.

“Jake Mason came off the bench with a lot of fire like he’s been doing all season long,” Thompson said.

Shorecrest added an insurance goal in the 72nd minute when Ehrhart headed in a long throw-in by sophomore Nick Terrel.

In the first meeting, Shorecrest scored two quick goals in a span of two minutes after Shorewood defensive breakdowns, but didn’t command the field as well as they did the second time.

The Scots played with more composure, played smarter and employed two-touch passing, Richards said.

Shorecrest notched 10 shots on goal to Shorewood’s six. McDonald had two saves and Igl had one.

“It’s always fun playing them because they’re usually playing a lot harder against us. That means can we can play up to our level,” Mason said. “I feel like the first half we didn’t. It was a very even match. We got one good finish by Elliot. And that second half we started taking control and gained possession and we kinda had the majority of the possessions so we could do more with the ball.”

Shorewood coach Mark Wisdom agreed, saying that Shorecrest’s ability to control the midfield was the difference.

“Their center mids owned it,” Wisdom said. “Our game was on, except our center mids stopped passing the ball … if we had kept our center mids like we’ve been working the last week it would’ve been a much better game.”

The T-birds lacked the teamwork they showed in a 3-1 win over Meadowdale on April 4, he said.

“Some guys try to play the whole game by themselves and it messes everybody up,” Wisdom said. “When they remember to play as a team, they play perfectly. Wednesday’s game was one of those games where just we played really well and executed well and continued to do that through the whole game.”

While Shorecrest’s win over Shorewood was big because of the schools’ rivalry, it set the stage for a bigger matchup between the Scots and Kamiak.

The two teams tied in the season opener and came into their April 9 meeting at Goddard Stadium otherwise undefeated in the Western Conference South Division.