SNOHOMISH — A quick deficit, a dislocated shoulder, lackadaisical early play.
None of it was going to hold back a Glacier Peak boys soccer team dead set on its second straight state championship. Thanks to a spectacular night from forward Shane Miller, the Grizzlies overcame adversity on the
way to a 3-2 win over Lakeside on Friday at Veteran’s Memorial Stadium.
“It’s always nice (to advance),” coach Shannon Murray said. “I think this year is a lot different because there’s so many expectations, playing with those as opposed to last year nobody knew us. We had five losses going into the tournament then.”
GP, currently ranked as high as No. 11 in the nation by some publications, will take on Bainbridge — 1-0 winners over Mt. Vernon Friday — at Harry Lang Stadium next Friday in the 3A state semifinals.
Glacier Peak goalkeeper Andrew Weakly was determined to do everything in his power to get his team to the semis, including play through an injury.
With his team down 1-0, he fought off a Lakeside defender charging the goal in the 21st minute. The Lions attacker went in high for a loose ball and collided with Weakly’s left shoulder, which he said popped out of its socket. The keeper, who will play at Villanova on a full athletic scholarship in the fall, remained on the turf for a few minutes before taking a minute and popping it back into place on his own.
“There was no way I was going to come out,” Weakly said. “It wasn’t even a question.”
Murray said trainers wrapped it at halftime to keep it from popping out again and he could tell how much the game meant to his senior goalie, who missed the final two games of the season a year ago due to an obligation to his select team.
“He really wanted this one and maybe that played a part in that first goal,” Murray said.
He made an uncharacteristic mistake in the seventh minute. One of the Grizzlies committed the first foul of the game about 35 yards from their goal.
Lakeside’s Jay Bensal hit such a mediocre free kick directly to Weakly that many of his teammates began their retreat on defense. Only the ball took a short hop in front of Weakly and the senior keeper failed to field it cleanly. Guy Thyer remained on the attack for the Lions and collected the ball, which bounced to Weakly’s left, practically dribbling the ball over the line for a quick 1-0 advantage.
“It held up different in the air than I expected and I was too high,” Weakly said. “It came off my chest and bad things happened.”
Weakly wasn’t the only one to stumble out of the gate. Murray was beaming with pride after the win, but admitted that his team has struggled with slow starts this season.
“We’re not a first five, ten minute group,” Murray said. “We need to get our feet wet a little bit before we settle in.”
The first Grizzly to get his feet wet was Shane Miller who gave the Lions fits all night, scoring twice and assisting on another.
“We needed someone to do something big,” the senior captain said.
He leveled the match in the 28th minute. Miller collected a long ball from David Linney, who launched a pass from midfield. Miller easily got behind Lakeside keeper Daley Seaton and a routine shot made it 1-1.
The Miller assist put the Grizzlies ahead in the 35th minute. A through ball gave him possession in the left corner and he fooled his defender, snaking the ball backwards through his legs, regaining control before heading toward goal where he got off a clean cross to the waiting feet of Juan Machuca-Garin. The sophomore forward trapped the ball, paused, took aim and nailed the ball off the far post and in for the easy goal that made the game 2-1.
Murray wasn’t surprised to see the way his team responded to the early deficit.
“Maybe our experience kind of pays off there,” he said. “There was no panic in us.”
Lakeside used plenty of substitutes to run the GP defense ragged and it paid off in the 50th minute when a disjointed Grizzly back line fell victim to Thyer again. The senior midfielder dribbled through three defenders finding the equalizer at 2-2.
Miller made his most impressive play of the day to net the game winner in the 70th minute. From the left side Branson Corwin crossed the ball into the box where Miller flicked the ball into the back of the net with a pretty header that gave Seaton no chance to save.
It was the kind of difficult play that he worked on over and over again in the offseason and he converted when it mattered most.
“All year I’ve been working on making through runs on those crosses,” Miller said.
The Lions couldn’t mount a significant threat in the final 10 minutes and were held without a corner kick throughout the game.
After the postgame handshakes between the teams an exuberant Glacier Peak crowd ran onto the field to celebrate.
“There’s no words,” Weakly said. “It’s so great. We are so happy.”
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