Thunderbirds make defense top priority

SHORELINE — On the eve of spring tryouts, most of the Shorewood boys soccer team was playing for a state championship.

Both squads in the U-19 state cup title game — the FC Shoreline Americans and Eastside FC 84 — had Shorewood ties. Even more current Thunderbirds advanced to the state finals in different age groups.

This spring, they’re hoping to duplicate the success they’ve experienced at club level during the high school season.

“We’ve all come together well to form one team,” said senior striker Matt Friend.

Shorewood brings back 10 seniors and seven all-league honorees, including a trio of senior captains in Matt and Nathan Friend and Eli Schwimmer.

The fourth-year starters have never been to the playoffs with the T-birds and are expecting to bring a halt to Shorewood’s postseason cold spell.

“We have the best chance of making the playoffs that I’ve seen,” said Nathan, who directs a refined defense from the sweeper position.

Defense has surfaced as Shorewood’s top priority in response to some disappointing results in 2002, when the T-birds barely outscored the opposition (35-31) and didn’t record a single shutout in 16 outings.

“Our biggest emphasis is on playing good defense, keeping teams out of our goal and improving our goals against average,” Shorewood coach Drew Thompson said. “It wasn’t very good last year. If we can do that, it’s going to make a difference in our season.”

It certainly has through their first five games. The T-birds have allowed four goals and are 3-1-1 with two non-league contests to go before Western Conference 4A South Division play begins next week.

“One of the problems in past years is we’ve been letting a lot of goals in,” Nathan said. “It’s hard to win games when you’re fighting back from one or two down from the onset.”

After testing out some new schemes last year that never quite caught on, the T-birds reverted back to a more traditional look.

“We were kind of doing some experimental formations trying to keep teams offsides and it wasn’t working terribly well,” Nathan said.

Friend and junior stopper Drew Mack were all-league, second-team defenders and are joined by seniors Lucas Nosetti and Scott Jones and junior Blake Bernhard.

“Barring any injuries, we’ll have one of the strongest defenses we’ve had in a few years,” Friend said. “We have enough depth on our bench, we’ll be able to field a strong team no matter what.”

At goalkeeper, juniors Reed Renfrow and Griffen Manchester have developed a battle that Thompson said still “isn’t settled.”

Four returners in the midfield — Schwimmer, seniors Kyle Nilson and Keith Schneider and sophomore George John — were honorable mention selections and freshman Chris Morris has been starting on the right side.

Schneider scored Shorewood’s lone goal in the 59th minute of a 1-1 tie with Mariner Tuesday night.

Since moving from midfielder to forward, Matt Friend has responded with a team-high five goals.

“We’re working with a couple other guys to see if they can play up there with him and complement him,” Thompson said.

The T-birds have also been scrambling to fill in a few temporary holes after Mack, Nosetti and Schwimmer all went down in Shorewood’s only loss — a 2-0 snubbing by district rival Shorecrest last week.

Mack sustained the most serious injury of the three to his right knee and a return date is up in the air. Nosetti sprained an ankle and should be back by the start of conference play and Schwimmer is expected back next week.

“These injuries don’t help the sorting process,” Thompson said. “Just when you’ve got your mind made up where you’re going to put guys, you start to fall apart and you’ve got to put new guys there.”

The T-birds host Lynnwood tonight and face Mountlake Terrace April 7 on the road to close out their non-league schedule.

As of Tuesday’s results, just two Wesco 4A South Division team had sub-.500 records and seven already have three or more wins.

Thompson anticipates a “dogfight” for the division’s four Northwest District 4A playoff berths.

“It’s not going to be an easy task for anybody to get there,” he said. “We’re confident we can do it. We’ve got the ability to get there. It’s just if we can stay healthy.”