SLIDESHOW: Kennedy Catholic gets one goal against Shorewood, shooting them into state quarterfinal
Thu, 05/21/2015
By Ed Shepherd
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Intense action, screaming fans, and a win in the first round of the 3A state championship tournament all made for a nice bit of fun for Kennedy Catholic. The Lancers beat the Shorewood Thunderbirds, 1-0, at the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila Tuesday.
The No. 10 state-ranked Lancers take their 12-2-4 Seamount championship honors on the road for their next state game, a quarterfinal match-up against No. 2 ranked Interlake (13-2-1), a Bellevue-area school, while the Thunderbirds of the North Seattle 3A Wesco division had their season end at 13-5-2.
"We knew what we were coming up against in Shorewood, played them in the preseason, they scored on a PK (penalty kick) in the last couple minutes to tie us, 1-1," said Teddy Mitalas, Lancers head boys soccer coach. "They're a good team. This was a good game tonight. Both teams played hard. Could have went either way."
But the game went the Lancers' way. They started off things more dangerous than the foe, getting two corner kicks in the opening two minutes of the 40-minute first half. The CK's, courtesy of Lancers' senior Jake Zwaller looping the ball into the middle, were cleared by the Thunderbird defense both times. But that set a tone and the Lancers would get another corner nine minutes into the first half and again 20 minutes in, so four corners in the first 20 minutes that amounted to.
The Lancers got the corner kicks but they didn't make for much of a threat any of the four times, and this game was back-and-forth in the middle of the field much of the first half, with not many shots on goal. The Lancers took three shots and the Thunderbirds two. The most dangerous shots of the first half were by the foe, as one shot ripped from the top of the 18 yard box went over the crossbar in the final five minutes and another ball crossed into the middle after that, shortly, with a chance to get on the head of a Thunderbird inside the 6-yard-box. But Lancers senior captain Nathan Tolton cleared it with his header.
The fans, including a large student body in the front row seats of the stadium leading the way, saw that as opportunity to cheer their team for good defense, saying, "Lancer Power, Lancer Power..." one word after the other, repeating a few times.
And so came halftime, and in the second half early, a minute in, came the closest shot of the game, thus far, and it was not by the Lancers. A Thunderbird forward got a pass from the midfield area to the right wing area at the corner of the 18-yard box. And that forward trapped the ball, spun, and launched a rocket of a shot that went crossways, hammering the left post with a hard clank and bouncing wildly out of danger, fortunately for the Lancers.
The Lancers' student body, got into cheering, again, as a narrow escape helped the large consortium to realize support was a good thing to do about now. And, 10 minutes into the second half, a freshman, Kaiden Braun, flicked a header to the keeper that required a save. And, then, came the biggest moment of the game when, 14 minutes into the second half, sophomore Aaron Rosel got the ball from a defender in the corner on the right side, near the goal line.
Rosel dribbled with the ball along the goal line as the defense tried to position themselves to stop a cross. Rosel got a cross off, though, into the six-yard-box area, but it was cleared by a Thunderbird. However, the ball went arcing out to waiting sophomore Jesus Garcia, who watched the ball bounce once and connected foot to leather, watching it zoom past the diving Thunderbirds' keeper and into the net to the thrill of the Lancers' faithful, making it 1-0.
"My guy, Aaron, kept with the play, crossed it in, it deflected out, I saw it coming down, I saw the defender coming out, and I hit it," said Garcia.
It was a nice goal. The way Garcia hit the ball on goal as it bounced meant it was a certain kind of shot in soccer, too.
A half volley.
"Jesus finished it well, he did the same thing against Columbia River," said Mitalas, speaking of the Lancers' game against the Vancouver area school on May 14 that the Lancers won, 5-2, sending them into the District 3 championship against Central Kitsap May 19. That was a 2-1 loss but was just for first and second seeding into state.
And, although the Thunderbirds would not roll over, making the Lancers' keeper, Sam Carballo, busy in the goal the last five minutes of play, having him make three saves, the Lancers would hold on from that last, desperate, charge by the foe.
The defense got a nice shutout to their credit along with Carballo.
Tolton, one of the senior captains who leads the team along with Griffin Matthews and Sawyer Ramsey, spoke of his team's good work holding off the Thunderbirds in this one that was with six shots for the Thunderbirds in the game and six for the Lancers. So, close, there. Saves, too, were close. Carballo made two saves in the first half, five in the second while the Thunderbirds' keeper made three saves in the first half and three in the second.
"Sawyer Ramsey is back on defense for us, and, Simon Thomas, along with Cole Carden and Jonathan Vair, and, Griffin Matthews is important to the backline," said Tolton, who came close to scoring for the Lancers a couple times with one a header with 20 minutes left in the second half just going wide off a Zwaller cross.
After the game, that included, with five minutes left, one of the Lancers' captains, Ramsey, going up for a header with a Thunderbird and coming down, hurt, as was the other player, stopping the game 10 minutes as both players put cloths on their head area and were out of the game that final portion of play, Tolton spoke to the team as many players were unlacing cleats and getting out of sweaty uniforms.
"Hey, that's the mentality, guys," said Tolton. "That's what it feel like."
It was a good game, and it took a tough mental approach. It started with getting those corner kicks early. In fact, the preparation started out before that, before the game, even, for the Lancers, who were kneeling in a prayer position beforehand -- players, coach Mitalas, and assistants Doug Stamnes, longtime successful girls soccer head coach, and Jason Schmeck, Chris Blais.
From that position, the Lancers' players rose up and then did a cheer before going onto the field for the start the game. And then they listened to their fans' support throughout the match, and the defense did its job, and the offense got the one goal they needed to win. And, when the final whistle blew, they shook hands with the Thunderbirds and then went over to the stands to thank their fans for coming out and watching.
"Great win," said Tolton.
And, Tolton wasn't at a loss for words describing the team's head coach, Mitalas.
"Always is intense, always fighting for the team, hates to lose, and that attitude permeates to the whole team," said Tolton.
"We fought hard, got that one goal, it spruced us up, we're a young team, still, we panicked a little at the end," said Mitalas.
Now, the Lancers hope to get past this quarterfinal round that is next en route to the final four semifinal championship road.
"We've lost to Lakeside three of the last four years," said Mitalas. "Last year, we lost in the quarterfinal to them, with less than a minute left. Our defender had a missed trap and they scored."
Mitalas likes the way this team does things this season, and that's not just talking about playing the game well.
"They're a good team, the most fun I've had at Kennedy," said Mitalas. "They are listening well."
Maybe, that kind of listening can end this team up with a bunch of its fans being heard saying, "Lancer.
Power. Lancer. Power..." on a lot bigger stage than this first one that opened up state play.
And, other words heard, too, like, "We are the champions."