Hawks thump Thunderbirds

SHORELINE — The Mountlake Terrace boys soccer team took a major step towards securing a possible district playoff berth with its 2-0 victory over Western Conference 4A South Division rival Shorewood May 2 at Shoreline Stadium.

The victory moved the Hawks into temporary possession of the league’s No. 2 berth to the Northwest District playoffs. But a 1-0 overtime loss to Jackson on May 6 meant that the Hawks and three other teams were left battling for the two remaining playoff berths.

Edmonds-Woodway clinched first place and a berth to the state tournament with a 2-1 overtime victory over Shorecrest. Mountlake Terrace was scheduled to wrap up the season against Mariner Thursday night, the results of which were not available for this edition of the Enterprise. A victory by the Hawks would clinch a playoff berth.

The victory over Shorewood ensured that Mountlake Terrace would be battling for a playoff spot in its final game of the season.

“It’s the biggest win in four years for us,” Mountlake Terrace coach Jerry Myers said. “This was a big game for us because we knew that the winner of this game has a shot for second place in Wesco 4A South … That was the kind of goal tonight and we knew that a tie wouldn’t do it for us and a loss would make it really tough to get into the top four.”

Both teams had their opportunities in the first half but weren’t able to score and it appeared they would head into halftime with a scoreless tie.

The Hawks seemed to have an advantage late in the first half and with about 30 second remaining, Martin Leites gained control of the ball on the left side of the goal and simply outmaneuvered his defender to score his 10th goal of the season.

“We haven’t had a forward like Martin since Dana Garner played for us a few years back,” Myers said. “Martin is one of those special players … he’s doing whatever he can out there to get the win for us.”

Added co-captain Shaun Morey, “He’s got great ball handling skills. He creates opportunities for people.”

The goal came as a bit of a surprise to the Hawks, who have been on the receiving end of some late scores. Earlier in the week, Mountlake Terrace allowed a late goal in the first half of what eventually was a 4-0 loss to Edmonds-Woodway.

“We’ve been getting stung in the 38th and 39th minute and that’s something again that we’ve worked on, trying to work on the conditioning so we wouldn’t get scored on during those crucial minute at the end because teams do tend to break down at those times,” Myers said.

Mountlake Terrace’s first half effort was a vast improvement over the Edmonds-Woodway game. The Hawks were a lot more aggressive and passed the ball well, especially in the first half, Myers added.

“The second half I felt like we were trying to hang on and I felt like Shorewood really controlled the ball,” Myers said. “They had a few opportunities but nothing too scary. The guys played well.”

At about the 73rd minute, Mountlake Terrace’s Tony Scherting blasted a free kick that glance off Morey’s head and into the Shorewood goal to give the Hawks a 2-0 lead.

“It went right off my head and underneath the keeper’s legs,” Morey said. “After the first goal we had to keep it up and we had to score another one to seal it … we had the mentality of playoffs in mind. We had to get the win.”

Goalkeeper Danny Tappell recorded his fourth shutout of the season.

Shorewood just couldn’t seem to find a rhythm, according to coach Drew Thompson. The Thunderbirds like to control the ball and play a possession type game.

“We just couldn’t do that,” Thompson said. “Terrace came out tonight and they were winning the 50/50s. They were just doing enough to keep the ball away from us and just threw us off our game … you’ve got to give a lot of credit to Terrace. They played a really good game tonight.”

Myers praised the play of Morey and Jonathan Carreno, who he said were all over the field.

“I thought those two were the MVPs of the game, just great hustle out there tonight,” Myers said.

Even with a playoff berth in sight, Morey feels that the Hawks have a lot more work to do.

“It’s going to be a tough road ahead of us,” Morey said.

Myers also sees room for much improvement.

“I don’t think we’ve come together as a team the way we need to if we plan on making the state playoffs,” he said. “We’ve still got to come together more as a team. Our team chemistry need to improve too.”