Submitted by Coach Brett Paul.
It was an exciting (almost too exciting) state quarter-final against Puget Sound Adventist last Friday. A huge highlight was former FH Wolverine and our current statistician, Sam PB did the pregame announcements – he has a lot of experience announcing for his alma mater WSU and currently the UW Boys Soccer Program and brought a real professional flair to the pregame introduction. I think our team will remember that moment forever. PSA was a fast physical and really strong opponent. The first half felt like a pretty even game with both teams having some good looks at goal. Three minutes before the first half Alden Carli placed a free kick from about the halfline into PSA’s six-yard box, the ball was miscleared by a PSA defender and Adam got his head on the ball putting it in the corner of the net making the game 1-0 at the half.
The second half was a nail-biter and within the last two minutes PSA had a great shot on goal that hit the top right post – it was a hold-your-breath kind of moment. We were able to keep PSA scoreless the whole game with a strong defensive game – Eric Corbin had a great game at center back and goalie Luke Totten cleaned up every PSA shot that was on-frame. We strung together some nice offensive sequences throughout the game and Mateo Zappelli was a notable offensive presence for us orchestrating lots of good passing from the center-forward position. As a whole though, we struggled on the worn turf which was bouncy and fast so it was not our strongest offensive play that we’ve had in previous games and on other turf surfaces, something we’ll be focusing on in practice this week as we prepare for our semi-final game against Saint George, this Friday at 3 p.m. at Renton Memorial Stadium.
We are thrilled to make the final-four for the second year in a row and definitely have our sights on the state championship title. It was fun to see our island competitors, the Orcas Vikings, win their quarterfinal game right after our game in Sedro-Woolley this past Friday. It would really be something to face them for the state championship, only two weeks after just facing them in the bi-district championship. We’ve both got a tough game before the final however so obviously the focus at the moment is our game vs St. George.
We’d love community support at Renton Memorial Stadium this Friday / Saturday! Tickets can be purchased at GoFan.co or anyone can tune in by purchasing a 1-month subscription to the NFHS network online. Streaming the whole tournament only costs $12 for the 1-month subscription, less than the in-person entry fee. So if one can’t be there in person, I encourage everyone to tune in on NFHS!
