T-wolves upend Terrace

EDMONDS — To have any chance of making the playoffs, the Jackson boys soccer team needed a pair of victories in its final two games.

The Timberwolves responded to the challenge, knocking off Lynnwood 6-0 last week and scoring a 1-0 overtime victory over Mountlake Terrace in a Western Conference 4A South Division game Tuesday night at Edmonds Stadium.

Senior midfielder Cameron Riel netted the winning goal off an assist by Sam Hartman less than a minute into overtime.

“We knew that this was do or die,” Hartman said. “We lose, we were going home. If we win most likely we’re going to the playoffs … we just said, ‘Leave everything you’ve got out here.’

“If we play as hard as we can, it’s going to work out for us and that happened.”

Jackson (4-4-1 in the league, 7-8-1 overall) moved into sole possession of the league’s No. 2 berth to districts with nine points. That position, however, likely will change depending on the results of Thursday night’s games, which were not available for this edition of the Enterprise.

Four other teams — Mountlake Terrace, Mariner, Kamiak and Shorewood — were tied with eight points. Only the top four teams advance to districts.

Edmonds-Woodway clinched its second straight division title and a berth to the state tournament with a 2-1 overtime victory over Shorecrest last week.

Neither Jackson or Mountlake Terrace had a clear edge in the first half as they each traded scoring opportunities.

But the Wolfpack appeared to gain the advantage in the second half with Hartman having a couple of near-misses.

“My guys were playing with emotion because they knew we had to win,” said Jackson coach Michael Bartley. “We knew we couldn’t tie.”

Hartman drew a lot attention from the Mountlake Terrace defense in the second half and that attention may have been partly responsible for the winning goal in overtime.

“They put a couple of guys on me at the very end and the middle was wide open,” said Hartman, who fed the ball to Riel. “I just turned on a guy and had two guys to beat and split it down the middle … Cam did a great job just filling that lane and putting it in.”

Bartley praised the effort of his players, especially in the second half and hoped it wasn’t too late.

“I think if we would have played that hard all year, we would have won more games,” he said.

One of the team’s 11 seniors, Hartman said the knowledge that Jackson needed a victory provided all the motivation the players needed.

“For us seniors, this could (have been) our last high school game,” Hartman said. “We needed to be as intense as we could and we knew that if we did that we’d have something just fall in.”