Soccer: District 3/4 3A @ Harry Lang Stadium: Timberline Survives PKs, Bainbridge Strikes Late to Keep Seasons Alive

5/7/24

(Lakewood, WA) The District 3/4 3A soccer tournament continued on Tuesday night with a couple of elimination games at Harry Lang Stadium with Heritage taking on Timberline and Bainbridge squaring off against Mountain View. The winners would meet in a winner-to-state game on Thursday while the losers would have their seasons come to an end.

Timberline 2, Heritage 1 (8-7 PK Shootout)

Coming off of an overtime loss in the opening round of the district tournament, the Timberline Blazers looked to bounce back from the loss to Central Kitsap as they tried to keep their season alive against the Heritage Timberwolves. Heritage was coming off a different result as they defeated Peninsula 2-1 in a loser-out game to open up the district tournament.

Both goalies were tested early and often in this one. Landon Gordon for Timberline did a very good job early but got caught in no-mans land at one point in the first half. A one-on-one shot was sent off of the post and out of play which turned out to be a big missed opportunity for Heritage. For the Timberwolves, it was Jackson Graham getting tested in goal as he had to come up with some tough saves. One came off of a free kick for Timberline where Landen Diaz fired a rocket and Graham was just able to punch it out to prevent the goal. Despite some great looks and an action packed first half, the match was scoreless at the midway point.

It didn’t take too long into the second half for the first goal of the match. Coming in the 51st minute, a free kick went out wide left of the goal for Heritage. The chip back into the middle would go too far, but Javaughn Mcrae was in the perfect place to head it back down right in front of the goal. Elliot Maldonado would just tap it in for the first goal of the match as Heritage took a 1-0 lead.

13 minutes later, a defensive mistake allowed Timberline to find the equalizer. Two defenders thought that one another would clear the ball out and neither ended up clearing it. That allowed Noah Deligeannis to fly in and win a free shot and tied the match up at 1-1 in the 64th minute. Neither side could find a goal in the remaining 16 minutes or in overtime which meant this one was headed to PKs.

This would not be a typical penalty kick shootout. Despite Heritage having a 1-0 lead through the first round, Timberline evened it up after three rounds at 2-2. Both sides came up empty in round four and Timberline would not miss again. After an incredible ten rounds of penalty kicks, Landon Gordon would come up with one massive save to close it all out. A 9-8 shootout win earned Timberline the 2-1 victory and moved the Blazers on to the next round to try to punch their ticket to state. Heritage saw their season come to an end with a record of 12-4-2 and finished tied for first place in the GSHL 3A.

Our Takin’ it to the House Play of the Game went to Landon Gordon for his final save in the shootout. Our Thorbeckes MVP went to Noah Deligeannis who scored TImberline’s match tying goal in regulation and also hit his PK in the shootout.

Highlights

ESN Postgame Show

Heritage Strikes First

Timberline Equalizer

Full Penalty Kick Shootout

Bainbridge 2, Mountain View 1

Timberline stayed around to do some scouting as the Bainbridge Spartans and Mountain View Thunder battled in the nightcap to see who would take on the Blazers on Thursday night. Bainbridge had to play in a pigtail game due to them playing in the 2A Olympic league but the Spartans won both the pigtail game over Bonney Lake 3-1 and their opening round match over North Thurston 5-0. Mountain View would drop their district opener to Gig Harbor 3-0 to put them in this elimination match.

Bainbridge dominated the first half in terms of time of possession. They were smart and methodical as they moved the ball down the field and into their attacking third. They could not get anything past goalie Owen Purvis at first which led to some good counters for Mountain View. The Thunder used their speed for quick counters and almost caught Bainbridge sleeping a couple of times but they could not get the ball into the back of the net.

A nice run for August Peterson came in the 21st minute as he took the ball into the left side of the 18-yard box. Peterson cut his pass back across and Finn Reynolds looked like he would take the shot, but it was just a fake. That got the defense and keeper to commit and left an easy shot for Cruz Piland and he would hit it to give Bainbridge a 1-0 lead. Late in the first half, Mountain View found their answer and it was on a quick counter. After just missing out on an assist minutes before, Xavier Perez-Saucedo would dial up another great pass to Joseph Hensel who would cash in on the look in the 36th minute. The late strike evened the match up at halftime 1-1.

Coming out of the break, Mountain View actually controlled the ball for the first 10 minutes. The Thunder began to put some serious pressure on Bainbridge, but the backline led by Finn McCallum kept the Spartans out of danger. Then Bainbridge once again began to move the ball up and down the field again. However, they could not get by the backline of Mountain View led by Noah-Sarot Evans. Then in the 75th minute, right when it looked like this match would also go into overtime, one of the best goals of the season and our Takin’ it to the House Play of the Game changed everything. A chipped pass to Finn Reynolds in stride was taken in about 25 yards out. Reynolds popped it up into the air and volleyed it right into the top corner of the net for the go-ahead goal. The magnificent strike would give Bainbridge the 2-1 lead and after five more minutes of smothering defense, the win to keep the Spartans season alive. The goal also earned Finn Reynolds our Thorbeckes MVP of the game. Mountain View’s season came to an end with the Thunder finishing with a record of 8-7-2 and tied for first place in the GSHL 3A

With the win, Bainbridge will move on to play Timberline in Federal Way on Thursday at 5pm. The winner of that one will punch their ticket to state but the loser will not be done. Whoever loses that match will play the loser of Auburn Mountainview and Stadium which will be played in Federal Way on Thursday at 7pm. The two teams that fall on Thursday will meet on Saturday at Harry Lang Stadium in a winner-to-state, loser out match at 11am. All of those matches at Federal Way and at Harry Lang Stadium will be streamed right here on ESN.