RENTON — Last year, the Archbishop Murphy boys soccer team lost to Sedro-Woolley in the 2A state quarterfinals. Head coach Michael Bartley said coming up short one game away from making it to the final four is the toughest game to lose.
His team made sure it didn’t happen again this season with a 3-2 shootout win over Liberty on Friday.
“This team just earned this,” Bartley said after the win. “They work hard in training and they work hard every day. They’re really close and they’ve had a lot of adversity in this season. It’s just so great that they’ve earned this opportunity.”
The Patriots gave the Wildcats all they could handle for the entirety of regulation and the two five-minute overtime periods, but when it came to the shootout the Wildcats were nearly perfect.
Senior midfielder Gabe Astone was the first to shoot on Liberty goalkeeper Griffin Dittmar and he converted in the lower left corner. Liberty’s Tyler Wray matched Astone’s goal, but nothing went right for the Patriots after that. Junior Brady Henderson made the Wildcats next shot, again in the lower left, to give the Wildcats a 2-1 advantage in penalty kicks.
Moments later, sophomore goalie Ryan Henderson made a diving save to his left side and Parker Buchanan converted on his attempt to give Archbishop Murphy a 3-1 advantage. Liberty’s Michael Duvall missed his shot over the goal setting the stage for sophomore Matt Williams to have a chance at the game-winner. Williams’ shot was right down the middle and he was mobbed by a group of charging teammates.
“I had my mind made up right before I took it to go to the bottom left corner, right where the goalie dived, but luckily I kind of miss-kicked it and it went right down the middle.”
Ryan Henderson had some key saves during regulation, but none were bigger than his shootout save.
“I was fortunate they went that way,” Henderson said of his shootout save. “We prepared a lot for this game and I guess we were just lucky to get to this moment.”
The Wildcats didn’t give up many goals this season and were rarely challenged in their Cascade Conference games, meaning their sophomore goalie didn’t get many chances to showcase his skills.
He did on Friday.
“He’s underappreciated because in our league he doesn’t touch the ball a whole lot,” Bartley said. “They all don’t see how great he is and tonight he showed how great he is. Ryan Henderson is just awesome. He’s a very, very good goalie.”
After an 8-0 win over R.A. Long in the first round of the state tournament, it was clear the Wildcats would be in for a different kind of game against the Patriots. Liberty took the lead in the 17th minute on a goal by Nate Steenis.
The Patriots maintained a 1-0 lead for the next 20 minutes until Brady Henderson converted on a shot from about 20 yards out to tie the score at 1-1. Nearly 17 minutes into the second half, Astone gave his team the lead for the first time with a left-footed rocket from 25 yards out.
“The thing was, it was his left foot,” Bartley said. “His right foot is really lethal. He’s another one of those kids that had a great season this year. He was first-team all-conference and I was talking to him before the game and I said, ‘play like it.’ And boy he cracked that thing. He has the ability to do that at any time in a game and it makes us just that much more lethal.”
The Wildcats held on to a 2-1 lead for the next 15 minutes, but couldn’t stop Liberty’s Tyler Jensen from tying the score at 2-2 in the 72nd minute.
The score remained tied through regulation and both overtimes despite several chances by each team for a go-ahead goal.
As a 2A school playing in the Kingco, Liberty plays many opponents from higher classifications, though its record might not have reflected it, Bartley knew his team would be in for a challenge.
“We knew Liberty was really good and they’ve played a lot of tough opponents, where we kind of go up and down,” Bartley said. “We knew this would be a tough game. I scouted them before and we knew we were in for a war tonight. I’m very proud of how my team performed.”
Archbishop Murphy advances to the state semifinals, where it will play either Shorecrest or Kingston next Friday at Sunset Chev Stadium in Sumner.
“We’re looking at celebrating tonight and enjoying the weekend and then I told them we’ll go back to work on Tuesday,” Bartley said. “We respect Liberty immensely, so we didn’t want to look ahead. We wanted to make sure we got this one because last year in this one we failed against Sedro-Woolley, so this year we wanted to do our best to make sure that didn’t happen.”
At Liberty H.S.
Goals—Nate Steenis (L), Brady Henderson (AM), Gabe Astone (AM), Tyler Jensen (L). Assists—Michael Duvall (L) 2. Goalkeepers—Archbishop Murphy: Ryan Henderson. Liberty: First half, second overtime and shootout—Griffin Dittmar; Second half and first overtime—Quinn Magendanz. Records–Archbishop Murphy 19-1-1. Liberty 9-7-2.
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