By Ed Shepherd
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The Tyee mood, overall, was very sad, as, expected, after Wednesday's state-opening loss to Ridgefield.

Some players were crying and others stared into space, while others tried to help teammates' who were fallen on the field following a Totems' season-ending, 4-0, state opening loss at Highline Memorial.

"We had our chances. We just missed. We had 165 passes in the first half, it is what it is," said Seyti Sidibay, whose was referring to a pass, the ball going from one person to another, 165 times to the Spudders' 22 times. Yet the Totems trailed, 1-0, at halftime. More of the same dominating kind of possession of the ball for the Totems in the second half, yet the Totems were scored on three more times in the second half while getting none of their shots to go in.

Despite the Totems' center control of the game, the shots on goal, surprisingly, were very similar, with the Spudders shooting three on goal and the Totems had four. The second half was slightly different, five shots for the Totems and four for the Spudders. The difference in the game, very obvious. The Spudders made their shots on goal count.

"It wasn't their day to hit the frame, we did," said Ridgefield coach Brian Newman. "When we had chances to take the shots, we, probably, finished better than all season."

After the game, the damage done, the season put on ice for the Totems as players were gathered together from their stupor states all across the field, laying down, being consoled, etc., team captain, senior, Enrique Navarro-Ramirez spoke positively.

"Suck it up," Navarro-Ramirez said, emphatically. "I got no more chances to play again, but you do. Suck it up. How do you think I felt when I lost in the finals two years ago? Did it stop me? No, it didn't. Always time to be a better person, to learn from this, but, if you cry, you can't do it. This is just the beginning for the Tyee program."

Sidibay spoke to his team, too, afterward, saying, "This hurts, but this moves us forward. I'm proud of the way you played, passed the ball out there. The game just didn't go our way."

In a state game, getting behind is never good, no matter how one wants to spin it. It's, almost, a dead spin, a nonwinning argument, because the other team, who is ahead, plays loose, up a goal. The team behind plays tight, panicky, knowing its season is over if it does not score a goal before that final whistle blows.

That happened in this game fairly early. The Totems got behind in the 15th minute of the 40-minute first half when a Spudder, beautifully, chipped a ball from midfield over theTotems' backline defense. A forward for the foe trapped the ball out of the air on his foot, dribbled, once, twice, bam! The ball flew past the Totems' keeper trying to cut off the angle, and it was 1-0 Ridgefield.

Totems kept fighting hard, as the team's other senior captain, Adama Kante, a forward, took a shot from the left side in the 25th minute of the first half, a 30-yard blast caroming off the crossbar. Also, Nebiu Kinfu, senior midfielder, took a couple shots in the first half, right after that, in the 30th minute. But both Kinfu shots either found the keeper's arms or were offline of the goal a bit.

Nice builds, though, for shooting opportunites, here and all game by the likes of center midfielder senior Mohammed Dukaly, KInfu, even freshman Samuel Tessema, and others including Navarro-Ramirez, who played midfield as well as defender in this game.

"They did what I wanted them to do," said Sidibay. "They passed the ball around great. If you can control the ball, then you can control the game."

Just not a win controled on this day. The Totems couldn't break free for any momentum of a goal scored, which, frankly, would have untightened the Totems and probably sent them on to victory and a date with a Round of 8 state quarterfinal game, two away from the state championship match. That's where the Totems played Cheney when Navarro-Ramirez was a sophomore, losing that game, 2-1.

"State game," said Dukaly, afterward, noting this was not a regular season game, much different, much more intense. "We played really good."

The Totems' keeper, Alan Mora-Torres, did have a rough game with four balls getting by him, but the shots taken by the Spudders were all solid hits on goal, with no chance for most keepers to make saves, really.

But, still, in the first half, keeper Mora-Torres did make a very nice save of a similar play scored on earlier, in the 30th minute, where a Spudders' forward was running onto the ball and he came flying out of goal to deflect a shot taken at the top of the 18-yard-box.

The Totems were down a goal less than halfway through the first half but were still fighting and controlling the game, just not making their shots as earlier said, but Ulyses Morales, for one, was cheering his team on.

"We got 60 minutes left in this half, step it up," the junior right fullback yelled into the air for his teammates to hear, the words coming a few minutes after Ridgefield's first-half goal.

The Totems got a real good chance, then, still only behind a goal, when Kante, after a nice move into the 18-yard-box and dribbling by the keeper missed an open goal shot at the 54th minute. It was a fairly tough angle, it is noted, but still quite doable.

"We controlled the game. Any one of our chances going in could have changed the momentum," said Sidibay.

The Ridgefield second goal of the game came in the second half, in the 58th minute, an incredible boot put on by a player from 35 yards out on the left side that rocked into the net with ferocious velocity. The third goal was another long shot, hit with much pace, flying into the right post and back across to the left net and in, at the 74th minute. And, just a minute later, a bouncing ball around the 30 yard line was volleyed out of the air into the net and it was 4-0.

Navarro-Ramirez said a little more about that "beginning" he spoke of earlier, to his teammates, after the game.

"'It was a tough loss," said Navarro-Ramirez, adding, "But this is just the beginning of Tyee's legacy. We are barely getting started. And, if we make it to the Round of 16, now imagine where we finish."

Great words from a player who will not set foot on a soccer field again for a high school soccer game. But that is only as a player, it seems.

"I will return, but not to play," said Navarro-Ramirez. "I will help out, to mentor and help lead these young guys,"

And of Sidibay?

"I love my coach," said Navarro-Ramirez. "I like the system he does, keeping ball, no shooting. He's a great coach. I hope he coaches in college."

And, Dukaly, already spoken of, said something of the game, insightfully.

"We had our chances," he said, echoing what his coach said earlier. "You win or lose. Hopefully, the seniors play at college and the freshmen, sophomores and juniors use this as a reference."

Totems players, who helped them capture the Seamount 2A soccer crown this season, include Alan Mora-Torres, Samuel Tessema, Alexis Cervantes, Cesar Cantarero, Oscar Michel, Jose Tamayo-Gallegos, Ali Yusuf, Osvaldo Lopez-Mora, Enrique Navarro-Ramirez, Mohamed Dukaly, Adama Kante, Nebiu Kinfu, Jedidah Thang, Ulyses Morales, Deion Williams, Biak Ceu, Chaleunphong Xayasen, Muya Hamadi, Rafael Cervantes-Vilanueva, Delva Maradona, Diego Ramos-Machado. The coach is Seyti Sidibay. The assistant coach is Jacob Taylor.