By Quint Turner

The Meadowdale Mavericks proved Tuesday night that they can come from behind, overcoming a 1-0 deficit against the Lynnwood Royals in an important game to win 2-1.

The team had to battle back against a very physical (and talkative) Royal team. Lynnwood tried valiantly to tie the game, but those plans were thwarted by Meadowdale goalie Patrick Gove, along with the outstanding defense of Justin Chrichlow, Matt Carver and Peter Mataya in the final minutes.

The game started out in the Mavericks’ favor. Alec Robertson had an early shot that was saved by keeper Jose Del Rio and quickly after Mataya had a corner that was cleared. Mataya would also get a shot right outside the goal box and would just kick it high. The Royals would draw first blood, as Momodou Drammeh took a low shot from outside the box that skipped underneath Gove, but it went wide to Denden Russom, who easily tapped it in to make it 1-0 in the 19th minute. The Mavs would come back when Enrique Zambrano got into the goal box and was fouled by Obiakaraije Esonu to set up Nils Odegaard’s penalty kick, and he struck it home to make it 1-1 in the 24th minute. The pressure from the Mavericks continued, as right after the PK, Mataya took it near the goal box, and was fouled just at the corner. This set up a free kick from Mataya, who placed a wonderful ball to Tristan Springer and had it headed in to make it 2-1 in the 25th minute. The score would remain 2-1 at halftime.

The second half was when everyone got a little more feisty. An early free kick from Drammeh went right to Gove, then later a great chance for Chris Prassana of the Mavs on a lead pass to Springer was just offsides, denying a great chance. In the 55th minute, Drammeh was yellow carded after a slide tackle by Chrichlow knocked the ball out of bounds off Drammeh, who then kicked the ball into the corner and started mouthing off to the ref, earning his card. Soon after, Royal coach Ryan Camden was ejected for arguing with the ref after a slide tackle from Taylor Linton hit Esonu on the foot with no call.

A long shot soon after by Nechirvan Zebari of the Mavs just grazed the net, but the momentum started going the Royals way. Drammeh took a free kick that skipped through the goal crease to Esonu, who just missed it on his way in. Another yellow card was awarded to the Royals, this time on Russom. Another late cross from Dommeh skipped through the crease, and the Mavericks held on to a 2-1 win.

Meadowdale’s next game will be Friday at Jackson High School at 7:30 p.m.

Sports contributor Quint Turner is a student at Meadowdale High School.