As noted in last week’s boys’ soccer preview, this Mount Si team has a lot of new faces, so with that inevitably comes a lot of questions about how good the Wildcats will be this season. Against the Skyline Spartans last Tuesday night in their season opener, a lot of those questions appeared to be answered, and for Mount Si soccer fans, the answers appeared to be very positive.

The Wildcats tied Skyline 1-1, but the score on the board didn’t tell the whole story. “The boys played hard and I saw a lot of great things tonight. I’m proud of the way they played,” said Mount Si coach Darren Brown. “This group is a work in progress, but you know I saw some things tonight that were electric, and that was hustle, movement without the ball and our first touch was on tonight, and I think this team is only going to get better,” he added.

The Wildcats’ lone goal came in the second half, in the 52nd minute. Junior Gibson Bardsley took a feed from sophomore teammate Ben Joselyn and rammed it home past the Skyline goalie. It was a bit of a relief, too: two goals that Mount Si appeared to have scored in the first half were both called back on offsides. “I couldn’t have done it without our newcomer on the varsity team, Ben [Joselyn]. He gave me a good ball and I just had to put it away for him,” Bardsley said. Among those in attendance at the game who witnessed Bardsley’s season-opening goal was his scoring partner from last year, Yosef Yetneberk. Yetneberk graduated last June.

Skyline tied the game with a goal in the 59th minute, but not before freshman goalkeeper Cody Tipton came up big with several spectacular saves. “That goal wasn’t his fault. That was just mis-communication we had in the back on a corner, and he played great tonight. He’s a great keeper,” said Brown.

Tough night at Juanita

The Wildcats traveled to Juanita last Thursday and ran into a buzzsaw known as the Rebels’ offense. Juanita scored early and often, and held off Mount Si 3-0. The Rebels outshot the Wildcats 12-5 in the contest. According to Brown, this Rebels squad is loaded with experienced juniors and seniors, and he expects the team to make state this season at the 4A level.

Falcons steal victory from jaws of defeat

To close out the nonleague schedule, the Wildcats hosted the Woodinville Falcons last Friday night. The game had been originally scheduled for Woodinville, but was moved to Mount Si and fans saw a very tough battle, even more so than the Skyline game. The Wildcats came very close to pulling off the win, but a funny thing happened late in the second half.

The Falcons, after giving up a Mount Si goal earlier in the half, scored twice in the final eight minutes and grabbed a 2-1 win from the Wildcats. “It was probably one of the worst matches that I’ve ever seen or coached as far as taking a punch to the gut,” said Brown.

The game was extremely physical throughout, and referees were very busy in the contest. Two yellow cards were assessed, one to Woodinville’s Chris Fleck, the other to Mount Si’s Chad Henning. Both were for hard fouls.

In the 68th minute, Bardsley scored the first goal of the contest, taking a pass from a teammate and firing it home on a breakaway chance. The Mount Si lead was short-lived however as Woodinville quickly tied the game on a goal from defender Matt Malcham in the 73rd minute. In the 80th minute, during second half stoppage time, midfielder Jordon Barde scored the game-winner and the Falcons had escaped.

Brown is challenging his team to step up. “Just because it’s a rebuilding year doesn’t mean we should not compete, and these boys have to understand that. That’s something really we can’t coach. It has to come from their heart,” Brown said.

The Wildcats open their league home schedule Friday against Sammamish. Game time is 7:30 p.m.

Mount Si is playing their games in the memory of former defender Alex Crabtree, who passed away during the offseason.