
It took a whole lot of mental preparation, a fearless defensive effort and a little bit of good fortune, but the Edmonds-Woodway boys soccer team found a way to earn its biggest win of the season Wednesday, a 2-1 come-from-behind victory over the state’s No. 1-ranked 3A team, the Shorewood Stormrays.
After yielding a goal to Shorewood’s Jackson Smith in the 52nd minute, the Warriors scored two of their own in the game’s final 20 minutes to earn the win at Shoreline Stadium.
E-W’s first score came off the foot of senior Richard Duncan, who found himself alone near the right corner flag in the 60th minute. Duncan fired a sharp angle shot that got past Shorewood goalkeeper Atticus Benitz to tie the match at 1-1.
Then in the 71st minute, the Warriors’ Alexander Bryan lofted a corner kick to the top of the 18-yard box; after a scramble for the ball, junior Alex Plumis rocketed a shot that changed directions at least twice before reaching the Shorewood goal. The score gave E-W a lead the Warriors would not relinquish.
Plumis admitted that his game-winning goal wasn’t a pure blast.
“Sometimes you’re lucky, you know,” he said. “I saw it hit two or three, maybe three, guys — I don’t know. But it snuck by and that’s all that matters.”
Plumis called the goal the “biggest in my high school career.”
The Warriors made the 2-1 lead hold up in the game’s final minutes despite a frantic push by the Stormrays. Shorewood’s best opportunity for a late game-tying goal came in the final minute when, after a hard collision between forward Natan Ghebreamlak and E-W goalkeeper DJ Karl, Smith got an open look at the Warriors goal. But his shot was stopped by E-W defender Kincaid Sund near the goal line to preserve the win.
The final minutes were eerily similar to the match’s first 10 minutes, when Shorewood was in complete control, holding possession of the ball and creating numerous chances to score.
“They had a couple crosses, a couple corners,” said E-W coach Jason Hanson. “We know they spread the game out so much and use the full width of the field — we knew they were going to find a sideline and cross it back in, so we were prepared for that. DJ, our goalie, did an awesome job today.”
While recording only three saves of Stormray shots on goal, Karl was instrumental in stifling the Shorewood offensive assault, stopping numerous crosses into the 18-yard box with diving efforts.
Hanson said he was proud of his team’s early defensive stance, especially in light of how much each team had been looking forward to the big matchup between the league’s top two teams.
“I talked a lot about the mental aspect of this game because I know the boys were really hyped up,” Hanson said.
“I wanted to remind them the first 10, 20 minutes of this game would be full of emotion,” Hanson added. “And I wanted to protect us from kind of a mental downfall, a loss of adrenaline. We talked a lot about just kind of being even-mannered and being there for each other the whole game.”
After surviving the opening 10 minutes, E-W began to equal Shorewood with offensive pressures. The Stormrays’ goalkeeper in the first half, Ivan Genadiev, was forced into making two diving saves: the first to his left in the 25th minute to stop a shot by Sund and then in the 40th minute to his right to knock away a 30-yard torpedo by Plumis.
The loss was the first for Shorewood, now 11-1-0 in Wesco League play and 12-1-0 overall. Despite the defeat, the Stormrays still hold a three-point advantage over the Warriors (9-0-3 in league play, 10-0-3 overall) in the 2A/3A Wesco League regular-season title race.
Hanson conceded that the league’s regular-season championship may be out of reach for the Warriors, but the No. 1 seed in the 3A District 1 tournament is still up for grabs; and another matchup against Shorewood in the postseason isn’t out of the question either.
“We know that we’ll probably face them again in the playoffs,” Hanson said. “And this was just the first game of many huge games we have coming up. We have Arlington and Monroe next week. And we finish with Everett. So our job’s not done. This was just one of several steps we still want to take.”
For Plumis, the win over the Stormrays was a real confidence booster.
“We know they are a good team but we know our quality,” he said. “We showed it today.”
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Prep boys soccer
Edmonds-Woodway 2, Shorewood 1
Edmonds-Woodway 0 2 – 2
Shorewood 0 1 – 1
Goals:
– Jackson Smith (Shorewood) in the 52nd minute (assisted by Atticus Benitz)
– Richard Duncan (Edmonds-Woodway) in the 60th minute
– Alex Plumis (Edmonds-Woodway) in the 71st minute
Shots:
– Edmonds-Woodway 9
– Shorewood 10
Saves:
– DJ Karl (Edmonds-Woodway) 3
– Ivan Genadiev (Shorewood; first half) 2
– Kaare Nye (Shorewood; second half) 1
Corner kicks:
– Edmonds-Woodway 5
– Shorewood 4
Yellow cards:
– Finn Delachapelle (Shorewood) in the 35th minute
– Andrew Montero (Edmonds-Woodway) in the 72nd minute
Records: Edmonds-Woodway 9-0-3 2A/3A Wesco League, 10-0-3 overall; Shorewood 11-1-0 2A/3A Wesco League, 12-1-0 overall
Edmonds-Woodway next match: vs. Arlington; 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 22 at Arlington High School
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