On a breezy night at Shoreline Stadium, the Mountlake Terrace High School girls soccer team was able to beat the elements and the opposition, grabbing a 2-1 victory over the Shorewood T-Birds in a Wesco 3A South match-up on Tuesday. The win put the Hawks in first place in the conference.

“The wind was tough tonight,” observed Terrace Head Coach Evan Hatch. “It made it tough for both teams to play their normal game. But it was a win, and we needed to get back into the win-column.”

After a 4-0 start to the season, the Hawks had dropped two in a row last week before Tuesday’s victory.

Terrace caught a break on its first score when Shorewood goalkeeper Ariel Garay mishandled a bouncing ball in front of her goal with about 30 seconds left in the first half. The Hawks knocked in the loose ball and Terrace took a 1-0 lead into halftime.

The Hawks extended their lead with a goal by Allison Lorraine early in the second half. The score came off a rebound of a scorching Lily Hart shot from long range.
Shorewood got on the board in the 22nd minute of the second half after Hawks goalkeeper Amanda Aversano waited for a ball to roll to her in the 18-yard box. The play allowed T-Bird Mikayla Morgan to pounce on the slow roller and slip past Aversano for an easy goal.

While Hatch conceded his goalkeeper slipped up on the play, he didn’t say anything to the senior afterwards. “It happens. Things like that can happen, and the most important thing is to learn from our mistakes,” he said. “She’s played well recently in games. It was a momentary lapse, but overall I’ve been impressed with her performance in the last couple of games.”

Shorewood had numerous chances for more goals in the match, but their many shots either soared over the goal, directly into the waiting hands of Aversano, or bounced off the goal post standards. T-Bird Melissa London forced Aversano into a diving save that bounced off the right post in the 21st minute of the second half, and Morgan clanged a shot of the left post in the 23rd minute of the second half.

Though it was a victory for the Hawks, Hatch wasn’t completely pleased with his team’s defensive effort. “I think we need to continue to play better than that,” he stated. “If we play like that against the tougher teams in the league, then it’s not going to go well for us.”

“Shorewood is a good team that works hard, and we’re still getting used to playing as hard as other teams in our league,” he added.

MTHS Girls Soccer: Mountlake Terrace 2 — Shorewood 1
Mountlake Terrace 1 1 — 2
Shorewood 0 1 — 1
Records: Mountlake Terrace 3-1-0 in league play, 5-2-0 overall; Shorewood 2-2-0, 5-2-0
MTHS next match: vs. Everett, Thursday, Oct. 3, 7:30 p.m. at Edmonds Stadium

— Story and photo by Doug Petrowski