SNOQUALMIE – The Mount Si Wildcats girls soccer team is moving right into the postseason with the help of last Tuesday’s victory over Newport.
Collette Hatch and Amy Torget each assisted on the other’s goal, and Mount Si won 2-0, not only beating the Knights but eliminating them from playoff contention. In other league games, Bellevue’s win over Sammamish and Mercer Island’s win over Liberty also helped seal the postseason field. With the exception of Mount Si, it’s all the same suspects from last year: Bellevue, Issaquah, and Mercer Island.
Seniors honored before Mercer Island game
Last Thursday was Senior Night and the Wildcats honored their defensive anchors Jordan Tipton, Collette Hatch, Krisi Lund and Kali Roestel prior to the game against Mercer Island. They then went to work knowing they needed a win to close the deal on a Kingco championship date with the Eagles. Unfortunately for the Wildcats, history repeated itself.
Last year, Mount Si went into the final week of the season ahead of the Bellevue Wolverines for the third and final playoff spot that year. The Wildcats tied Newport and lost to Mercer Island, while Bellevue defeated Interlake on the final night of the regular season to beat out the Wildcats by just one point for the third spot. It was a difficult pill to swallow for Mount Si. This year, although the circumstances and effect were different, the disappointment was still there.
The Wildcats finished in a scoreless tie with the Islanders, the second such tie between the two teams this season. Bellevue walloped hapless Interlake, so the Wolverines beat out Mount Si again by just one small point for a chance at the conference title.
It wasn’t for a lack of effort. There were at least three great scoring chances that the Wildcats narrowly missed by inches in the second half, and overall, Mount Si controlled the game.
“My opinion, for 80 minutes tonight, [is that] we controlled the tempo of the match and we just couldn’t get it in the net tonight and you need to capitalize on your opportunities. I told the girls tonight, ‘You know, don’t hang your heads down, I thought we played a good game.’ We just didn’t finish, and we had many chances,” said Wildcats coach Darren Brown.
Tipton echoed those sentiments.
“We totally owned them completely,” she said.
Roestel was pleased with her efforts.
“I tried my best. I gave it all effort, and I know every one of us tonight did,” said Roestel, who was ticketed with a yellow card in the second half. The Islanders’ top player, Alix Michael, was also given a yellow card in the contest.
Should the Wildcats have won their loser-out home game against the Islanders on Tuesday, they would have to travel on the road for a date at state on Thursday at 7 p.m. against either Issaquah or Bellevue. It’s clear who Mount Si would rather play: the Wildcats are 1-0-1 against the Wolverines this season, with the win coming at Bellevue and Mount Si is 0-2 against the Eagles in 2005. If the Wildcats make it to state, a more difficult proposition now, they would travel to the Northwest District No. 2 seed for their first state game. That could be Valley rival Cedarcrest or a host of good Northwest League teams led by Whatcom County rivals Squalicum and Bellingham.
No matter who the Wildcats face, Brown is ready to go.
“I think our game plan [is] solid, and I think we know what our objective is. We just need to execute and finish in the box,” he said.
