EVERETT When the Marysville-Pilchuck soccer team visited Cascade on March 30, the teams entered with similar records and similar offensive production early in the season. The winner stood to gain a boost in the Wesco North standings a fourth win would be good for third place behind undefeated Snohomish and Lake Stevens teams.
Unfortunately for Tomahawk fans, Cascade secured that win, 1-0, with the games only goal off the foot of senior midfielder Justin Willmorth about 25 minutes into the second period.
M-P came out firing early with a burst of offensive play, keeping up pressure on the Cascade defense and goalkeeper Derek Weigelt. Though the ball was rarely near M-P goaltender Kaleb Kuehn for much of the first period, Kuehn did not stand idly by, exhorting his teammates play on the other end of the field.
We wanted to come out in the game with a big offensive attack. We kept them in their half the first 15 minutes, Kuehn said after the game, adding of the matchs eventual shift into a back-and-forth, Both teams settled in and actually started playing.
It was not until the teams actually settled in that M-P had its closest brush with the opposing goal. The entire M-P fan base held its breath as senior midfielder John Whitfield had a shot on the goal toward the right side of the net about halfway into the 26th minute, but the kick was stopped in dramatic fashion by Weigelt on the goal line.
Kuehn notched about a dozen saves himself during the game, estimated M-P coach Kyle Suits, but was unable to stop Willmorths lone goal 40 minutes after Whitfields attempt. Several feints by Cascade late in the game lured Kuehn away from the goal and the Bruins nearly scored twice more, around the 69th and 72nd minutes, but junior Tomahawk Sayer Torkkola managed to help deflect the Cascade attacks.
Penalties in the final minutes of the match set up M-Ps Elwood Sevon for a chance at a game-tying goal and junior forward Jordan Salcedo took a shot in the 77th minute, but each time, Weigelt came between the Tomahawks and the goal.
We set out to win and we didnt score as many as they did, Suits said after the game. The teams were evenly matched. When that happens, it often comes down to one or two plays and thats exactly what happened.