Soccer: Sumner and Curtis battle to a hard fought 1-1 draw

4/18/2023

Sumner 1, Curtis 1

(University Place, WA) Coming into Tuesday night’s game the SPSL 4A was jammed packed at the top of the standings with Curtis and Puyallup tied at 6-0-1, Sumner at 5-1-1 and Olympia at 5-2-1. So when 2 of these teams face off it is exceptionally important and you could tell from the intensity of the match-up with the Sumner Spartans at the Curtis Vikings. Curtis would have loved a win for more distance between them and Sumner while the Spartans needed a win to pull into a tie.

As the game began it looked like Curtis was going to roll it up on Sumner with attack after attack and several on frame shots yet the Sumner defense led by keeper Kyle Goodrow would repel the Vikings time and again. Goodrow got solid support from his backline of Jacob Morgan, Mathieu Le Gallo, Ronan Garcia and Dylan Fowler but it was Goodrow who shined recording 12 saves on the night.

Despite dominating possession for the 1st 20 minutes of the match it was Curtis who gave up the lead when the Spartans capitalized on basically their one and only true offensive assault in the 11th minute. Elijah Hamlin would tap the ball to Juan Vega who sent a pass from left to right across the goal to Ty Brunner who knocked to the right of Curtis keeper Isaiah Whitesell and the Spartans stunned the home team with how quick they struck and took the lead.

The tide began turn in the 2nd 20 minutes of play and it was the Sumner offense on the attack. Whitesell and his back line of Landon Lee, Javi Luevanos, Lucas Pham and Ethan Bell cracked down on the Spartans with Whitesell pulling down 3 saves.

Then it was Curtis’ turn to pull a goal out of thin air and it was set up off free kick set piece. Luevanos lined up the kick from 5 yards on top of the box to the left side and sent a low hooking shot toward the right post that was punched out by Goodrow but the rebound went straight to Elijah Johnson Warren who kicked it across his body to the left side to score in the 30th minute.

The 1-1 score would hold up until halftime and then in the 2nd half Curtis changed keeper to Jose Zuniga who had 2 saves but it was a battle of defenses through the final 40 minutes. Both teams had their runs and chances but the match which was physical never allowed either side to get one past the keepers. The match ended in the 1-1 tie and Curtis maintains that 1 game advantage over Sumner now at 6-0-2 while Sumner is now 5-1-2.

Curtis did get some help from Bellarmine Prep who knocked off Puyallup 3-1 so now Curtis is all alone atop the SPSL. Puyallup is now 6-1-1 followed by Sumer, Olympia blew a chance to move up by tying Rogers and is now 5-2-2 while Rogers goes to 1-6-2.

Our MVP’s in our game went to Sumner’s keeper Kyle Goodrow and to the Viking’s Elijah Johnson-Warren. Sumner will host South Kitsap on Thursday at 7:30 while Curtis is at Bellarmine Prep on Thursday with a 7 o’clock kick-off.

Below is our ESN full Post Game show, video highlights and pictures.

Link to watch the full game on the NFHS Network