Todd Beamer was roughed up by visiting Puyallup, 2-0, in boys soccer action Thursday, but, hey, think on the bright side -- there's still a lot of season left for the Titans to shine.

Currently, despite the loss, the Seattle Times daily marks the Titans as one of the top 10 ranked teams (ninth) in 4A in the state, ahead of rival Decatur even, though the Gators will probably win the South Puget Sound League South Division. The Gators have Spanaway Lake this Tuesday and then end on May 7 against Beamer. Incidentally, Beamer won the first season meeting, 1-0 --scoring the game-winner (1-0) in the final four minutes of play.

The Gators stand at 11-2-1 with 34 points in the SPSL South league standings while Beamer and Puyallup are both 9-2-3 with 30 points.

So, realistically and, three points get gained for a win, or, one, for a tie only. The Gators are too many points ahead of the two tied second place teams --Beamer and Vikings -- and the Gators will win the SPSL South. For that feat, the Gators will get pitted against the No. 1 team from the SPSL North coming up on May 12, which looks like it will be Thomas Jefferson with their 10-4-1 mark under Dave Hanson's coaching.

So the table's been set for the league finish and that was just what the Beamer boys could not do in this game -- finish!

Chances were there for this team as Ike Crook, but a freshman, plays much older, making and creating plays and having opportunity for shots like a shot on the left side in the first half missed over the top from 18 yards out. Erik Lissak, who plays in the center back for the

Titans and did a good job back there, also had shot that went over the crossbar in the last 10 minutes.

So, no score for either team in the first half, and, give the Titans more credit than Puyallup for controlling the run of play (time of possession), holding on to the round ball for about 70 percent of the time to the Vikings' 30 percent.

"We controlled the play in the first half, but we didn't do so much of that in the second half," said Titans coach Bret Lucas.

They did let down a little bit, letting the Vikings control play about 65 to 35 percent in the second half, with really the difference being players like Crook, and others, missing shots, or waiting too long to take shots to the Vikings' just launching them...in the second half.

Five minutes in, and it wasn't really anything more than luck, or a counterattack in this case, but the right wing for the Titans lost the ball at the corner of the 18 and then that Viks player blasted a ball all the way to the 35-yard-line on the opposite side of the field for SPSL South leading goal scorer Andrew Weishaar, to knock in his 25th goal of the season after beating Titans keeper Ben Draeger, in a 1-on-1 that any keeper in the league would be in danger of getting beat on.

So, that little bit of lucky, counterattack action happened fortuitously for the Viks five minutes into the second half (45th minute) and it would stay like that for just nine minutes more before another goal came when a Viks player shot the ball from about 40 yards out on the right side all the way to the crossbar. Draeger went high for the ball and it went over his outstretched hand and clanked off the crossbar and a waiting Viks forward standing inside the six-yard box quickly blasted in the ricochet to make it 2-0.

Draeger, a senior and captain on the Titans who is a tough, quick-footed, reflexive keeper, couldn't have done much on either of those shots and gave a good reason why the Vikings won this one.

"They like to play what we call 'bootball,'" said Draeger. "They boot in from one end of the field to the other and try to get breakaways and create things that way."

Well, that worked.

And Beamer?

"We like to knock the ball around to move it up the field. Definitely, we are two teams with differing styles," he said.

Senior midfielder Brent VanWechel on the outside did some nice foot tricks and scrappy play to get his team in a position to score in the second half, doing some passing with players like Crook and forward Michael Manolides. But nothing ever became of Crook or others' shots, or Crook or others' passes, more than shots getting blocked or saved by the keeper inconsequentially.

So it went, and in this game, style points didn't really matter except it meant victory. The biggest style needs to come up in the next couple weeks...when state starts.