The first meeting between West Seattle and Ingraham on March 19 resulted in a 2-2 tie. At that point, the boys hadn’t gelled together, and weren’t playing their best soccer, but when they met again on April 24, the Wildcats were ready.

The Widcats were looking to return to the Metro playoffs as they did in 2007. A win over ingraham would guarantee them a spot in the first round.

West Seattle was all over Ingraham early, taking many quality shots, and controlling the game. However, the Wildcats had some trouble finishing in the first half.

After continuing to pressure the Rams, Westside forward Daniel Zizeros scored to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead. The Wildcats continued to dominate, and took a 2-0 lead by halftime.

In the second half, Westside kept attacking, resulting in two more goals and a 4-0 shutout victory.

After a tough 2-1 loss against Nathan Hale, the boys finished the regular season with dominating victories over Cleveland and Rainier Beach. This meant West Seattle was going back to the Metro playoffs as the second seeded team from the Metro League Sound division.

They matched up with Seattle Prep in the first round, which was played Monday, May 11 at Interbay Stadium.

The boys fell behind early as Prep scored in the 15th minute. After Prep continued to dominate, they scored again right after halftime. After it appeared all hope was lost, Danny Moy and Daniel Zizeros combined to score two goals in the final four minutes to send the game into overtime.

Overime consists of two five-minute periods, and finishes with a shootout if neither team scores. The first period ended with neither team scoring.

Then, with less than a minute to go before the shootout, the Panthers headed the ball into the back of the net for a 3-2 victory, ending West Seattle’s season.

Kyle MacDonald is a West Seattle High School journalism student and this article appears originally in the school newspaper, The Chinook.