Saying it’s the best he’s seen his squad perform during his year-and-a-half at Mountlake Terrace High School, coach Evan Hatch watched his Hawk girls soccer team dominate Meadowdale 4-1 in a Wesco 3A matchup Tuesday night at Edmonds Stadium.

The win was the first for Mountlake Terrace in league play this season, while the Mavericks are still searching for their first Wesco 3A victory and are now winless over their last four games.

“That was the best game that we’ve played since I’ve come on as coach,” Hatch said following the match. “It was the highest percentage of possession that we’ve had, and that has a lot to do with the skill that we have this year on the team, the technical ability and the ball skill to be able to possess it.”

The Hawks have been focusing on passing skills at team practices lately and that emphasis paid off on Tuesday. “We did that well tonight,” Hatch said. “The things that we’ve been working on and the things that we hope will work well did work well tonight.”

Mountlake Terrace controlled the game from the opening kickoff, even getting a shot-on-goal in the first minute of action. While none of their early efforts hit the mark, the Hawks eventually got their first goal when senior Lily Hart looped a 30-yard shot over the Maverick goalkeeper in the 31^st minute.

Even Meadowdale coach Terry Ryan recognized the goal as a superb effort. “It was just a great shot,” he consolingly yelled out to his team following the score.

Mountlake Terrace added two more goals just before halftime. Freshman Julia Hart scored from a sharp angle in the 35^th minute, then freshman Bryana Cockbain picked up a goal two minutes later.

While the rain picked up in the second half, the  Mountlake Terrace attack never slowed down. Lily Hart scored her second goal of the night after intercepting a Megan Zollars goal kick, slicing around a Mavericks’ defender and burying a shot in the upper right hand corner from eight yards out.

The Hawk’s leading scorer from last year almost picked up a hat trick in the game, but her header later in the second half went sailing beyond the goal.

The Mavericks had a couple good scoring opportunities in the second half, but were turned aside by a steady Hawk defense. Meadowdale eventually got on the scoreboard in the 69^th minute when Alex Hughes headed in a rebound off a shot by teammate Taylor Monroe-Jones from a set piece.

Ryan was OK with his team’s performance following the lost. “We had nine freshmen playing in the game tonight,” he noted. “The kids are doing the best they can. Our starting goalie is out, our starting whole mid(field) was out. We gave it our best shot.”

“We have good kids,” Ryan said. “We have a great freshman class and we’re just going to be as competitive as we can be this year.”

While recognizing the limitations of his own squad early in this season, Ryan saw strengths on the Mountlake Terrace team. “The fact is the other team played really well,” he said. “I don’t want to take anything away from them. We respect our opponents, it’s a tough league, and they scored some beautiful goals tonight.”

– By Doug Petrowski

Mountlake Terrace vs. Meadowdale, girls soccer, Sept. 23

Meadowdale             0          1          —          1
Mountlake Terrace   3          1          —          4

Goal scorers:
Lily Hart (MTHS), 31^st minute
Julia Hart (MTHS), 35^th minute
Bryana Cockbain (MTHS), 37^th minute
Lily Hart (MTHS) 48^th minute
Alex Hughes (Meadowdale), 69^th minute

Records: Mountlake Terrace 1-0-1 in Wesco, 2-1-2 overall; Meadowdale 0-2-0, 1-3-1

Next games: Mountlake Terrace vs. Marysville-Pilchuck, Thursday, Sept. 25, 7:30 p.m. at Lynnwood High School; Meadowdale vs. Marysville-Getchell, Thursday, Sept. 25, 7:30 p.m. at Marysville-Getchell High School

MTHS Girls Swim vs. Shorecrest, Sept. 23

Shorecrest 135, Mountlake Terrace 35

MTHS next meet: vs.Stanwood, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2:45 p.m. at Lynnwood Pool