Wildcats head into break with postseason hunt on top of their minds
Published 11:01 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008
SNOQUALMIE – The Mount Si Wildcats boys soccer team suffered their first defeat of the season last Tuesday at the hands of the hot Interlake Saints.
Interlake, who beat perennial Kingco 3A power Newport in the game prior to their meeting with the Wildcats, took advantage of their speed as they posted a 2-0 win over Mount Si.
Daniel Barba, in the 25th minute, and Mike Olson, in the 65th minute, scored the two goals for the Saints. According to Wildcat coach Darren Brown, the field surface away from home may have had something to do with it. Last Tuesday’s contest at Interlake High School was the first on artificial turf for Mount Si since their nonleague schedule wrapped up March 25 with their win at Woodinville.
“It showed tonight that our passing was not as clean as normal and that can be for numerous reasons, but I think the field turf was part of it,” Brown said.
Mount Si’s old home field (presently being rebuilt) was grass and so is their interim home field on Snoqualmie’s Community Park fields.
With the shutout loss, the goal-scoring streaks of both Gibson Bardsley and Yosef Yetneberk ended.
Not only did the Wildcats lose on the scoreboard, they also lost in terms of depth. Sophomore forward Kyle Wiley-Fulton pulled his groin early in the contest and was replaced by freshman Chad Hennig. Wiley-Fulton was day-to-day as of Tuesday night.
Mount Si notches win against Issaquah
Mount Si returned home Thursday, and under rainy skies got back in the win column. Two first-half goals by Yetneberk proved to be the difference as Mount Si took care of a hard-luck Issaquah Eagles squad 2-0.
Yetneberk’s goals, his eighth and ninth goals of the season, came in the 16th and 25th minutes, respectively. The Eagles had several chances to score goals but missed thanks to crossbars, posts and great stops by Mount Si goalkeeper Jeff Lewis and his defensive teammates. In the 30th minute, Issaquah’s John Ellings appeared to punch it into the net just barely inside the upper crossbar, but the referees did not rule it a goal. Issaquah coaches bitterly complained, but after the game, Eagles coach Tom Bunnell admitted that it had hit the post. He added that Issaquah has not had much go its way this year.
“That’s frustrating and that’s kind of been the tale of our season,” Bunnell said. “We’re getting chances and not finishing, and the ball’s not bouncing our way.”
As for Yetneberk, he was pleased.
“We just work hard. We came out to win the game. We lost our game with Interlake and we were mad. Coach was mad and told us to step up, so we did it. Our defense was solid all game,” Yetneberk said.
Brown goes into the break, though, a bit concerned.
“We need to bump up the conditioning a little bit. We showed it in the second half. The first four, five games, I think that our conditioning was at a level where I thought it was needed, but today I saw some difference,” Brown said.
Mount Si takes spring break off before a very important week of games that could determine the Wildcats’ fate going into the second half of the schedule. The contests, against the usually powerful but suddenly vulnerable Newport next Tuesday night at Newport, and at home next Friday against a tough Mercer Island squad, look to be must wins if Mount Si wants to send a message to the rest of the league about their ability to contend for postseason playoff berths. The Newport game is at 7:30 p.m. and the Mercer Island game is at 5:30 p.m.
