By Quint Turner

Coming into Monday night’s game, the North Sound SeaWolves were tied for 6th in the Northwest Division, and seven points behind the fourth place Portland Timbers, who hold the last playoff spot. It was the most important game of the season for the SeaWolves, and after Nasyir Rodriguez headed in a corner kick to put the SeaWolves up 1-0 in the 27th minute, it looked like the SeaWolves had a chance to close that seven-point gap.

Unfortunately, the SeaWolves were unable to stop the high-scoring Portland Timbers offense, as they recorded goals 21, 22 and 23 on the season, the highest amount of goals scored in the Northwest Division this year. Once again, Elmer Rodriguez played in net for the SeaWolves while Spencer Richey got the nod for the Timbers.

The first half was almost all Timbers. In the 8th minute, a through ball from Evyn Hewett to Erik Hurtado in the box led to a great chance. Hurtado settled the ball down, and hit a low shot that had to be saved by E. Rodriguez. The SeaWolves earned a corner kick in the 12th minute, but the Timbers took it the other way for a two-on-three breakaway with Hurtado leading the charge. He hit a short pass to Steven Evans in the box, but Evans shot the ball straight to E. Rodriguez for an easy save.

For the next 15 minutes, the Timbers were getting good pressure on the SeaWolves’ defense, but no real chances. Part of the reason for the lack of chances was that they had five offsides in the first 20 minutes. The Timbers ended the game with 11 offsides, while the SeaWolves got one. Although that sounds like a stat in the SeaWolves’ favor, it was not. It meant that the SeaWolves failed to create much offense on through balls, and that they did not take any real risks to get back into the game.

The only chance for North Sound in the first half came in the 27th minute. Jordan Carrera took a corner kick, and hit it perfectly to N. Rodriguez. Rodriguez easily headed the ball in from point blank range, untouched, and the SeaWolves had an early 1-0 lead. Back the other way, Hurtado got past the defensive wall with some nice dribbling, and got into the box, but his shot went over the net. Then, in the 31st minute, Cameron Vickers stayed onsides when he got a through ball, and he dribbled into the box all alone. However, his low shot skipped just wide. After a few more good opportunities for the Timbers in the box, they finally capitalized on a chance in the 41st minute. Vickers took a corner kick, and swung it right to Hurtado. Hurtado easily headed in the ball past E. Rodriguez to tie the game at 1. The score would remain 1-1 at the end of the first half.

But that tie did not last for long. In the 54th minute, a Timbers player sent a long ball into the box after the SeaWolves tried to clear the ball, and E. Rodriguez punched it near the sidelines. However, Will Seymore was right there to pick up the ball, and found Vickers coming into the box. The pass connected, and Vickers easily pushed the ball across the line to make it a 2-1 Timbers game. A minute later, Hurtado got a yellow card for slide tackling a SeaWolf while having his cleat spikes up, and then Renato Bandeira got a yellow card for the exact same thing two minutes later.

The next real chance for either side came in the 71st minute. Roberto Farfan picked off a pass from SeaWolf defender to a midfielder, and sent a through ball right to Mark Sherrod in the box. He deeked around E. Rodriguez, and slid the ball into the empty net to make it 3-1 Timbers. There were two more yellow cards to come in the game. In the 75th minute, Chris Harms got a yellow for knocking down Carrera as he was going down the sideline, and then in the 82nd minute, Abduwali  Aman got a yellow for a late tackle. The SeaWolves tried to get back in the game, as for the last 10 minutes, they had good pressure. The Timbers defense bent but did not break. The game ended in a 3-1 win for the Timbers.

With the win, the Timbers extend their one-point lead to four on the Vancouver Whitecaps for the last playoff spot while also jumping ahead of the Sounders for third place. They sit in the standings at 7-3-1 (22 points) currently, with only five games to go. Their next game is at Fraser Valley on Friday, at 7:30 p.m. The SeaWolves, meanwhile, have to be almost perfect in their next five games to catch up with the Sounders at 21 points. They sit in a tie for sixth at 4-7.

Come see Edmonds’ own SeaWolves in their last home game of the season against the U-23 Seattle Sounders at 7:30 p.m. Friday night at Edmonds Stadium.

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