On a team loaded with offensive talent, even a coach may not know who will be the hero at the end of any given match. For the Lynnwood Royals, Tuesday night belonged to forward Dane Evanger.
The Royals’ senior slipped a low shot past Mountlake Terrace goalkeeper Genaro Ruiz in overtime to give Lynnwood a 2-1 victory over the Hawks in a big 2A/3A Wesco League match played at Lynnwood High School.
The game-winning goal came after Evanger received a perfectly placed cross from teammate Ryley Johnson into the center of the 18-yard box.
“I saw the gap between the two defenders. (Riley) saw it and played that ball; I just put it to the near post,” Evanger exclaimed. “The keeper got his hand on it; I thought it wasn’t going to go in for a second. And when it snuck in I was excited.”
After he scored, Evanger was mobbed, tackled and piled upon by teammates and fans in the far corner of the pitch in a wild celebration.
“That was a fun moment right there in the corner, the dog pile,” Evanger said.
After the match, Lynnwood Coach Pablo Mummey congratulated Evanger for his winning effort, telling him how proud he was of the senior.
“At any point, at anytime, anyone of my players can score,” Pablo said later. “It happened to be Dane and Ryley today.”
In addition to assisting on Evanger’s game-winner, Johnson scored the first goal of the match in the 19th minute on a free kick in the center of the pitch. The senior blasted a 24-yard rocket through the Terrace wall and past a flat-footed Ruiz to put the Royals up 1-0.
Terrace evened the score in the 65th minute when Bobby Stoyanov out-muscled Lynnwood defender Brian Uribe for a through ball and found himself one-on-one with Royals’ goalkeeper Tyler Stull. Stoyanov calmly put the ball past Stull for the only Hawk goal of the night.
The Hawks had plenty of other opportunities to add to their goal total throughout the match. Just five minutes in Stoyanov put a sharp angle shot off the crossbar, then halfway through the first half saw a low drive just curve wide right of the Lynnwood goal.
Stoyanov also just missed sending the ball into the top left-hand corner on a spinning attempt late in the match. Teammate Max Johnson couldn’t capitalize earlier in the second half on a chance inside the box that he sent over the top of the goal.
“We had opportunities to win that game; we just didn’t finish,” Terrace Coach George Dremousis stated. “We had two in the second half point-blank – we put them over. You can’t do that at this level.”
With the victory, Lynnwood (7-3-0 in 2A/3A Wesco League, 8-5-0 overall) moved into a third place tie with Mountlake Terrace (7-3-0 in 2A/3A Wesco League, 10-4-0 overall) in the 2A/3A Wesco League standings, just one point behind second place Edmonds-Woodway.
The Hawks will face the Warriors in another big Wesco League showdown on Friday, April 28, at Edmonds Stadium. The Royals will go to Marysville on Friday to tangle with the red-hot Chargers, unbeaten in their past four matches.
In other Mountlake Terrace sports action on Tuesday, the Hawk softball team rallied from an 8-3 deficit after five innings scoring six runs in the sixth and another in the seventh to steal a 10-9 victory over the Marysville-Pilchuck Tomahawks at Marysville-Pilchuck High School. Gabby Calhoun went 4-for-4 with a double and two RBI’s while teammate Jazz Zenk nearly match the performance, going 3-for-4 with a double and two RBI’s.
On the baseball diamond, the Lynnwood Royals have struggled at putting runs on the scoreboard this season, averaging just 3.4 runs per game. But the Royals pounded out sixteen hits and scored nine runs to defeat the Hawks 9-3 at Lynnwood High School.
The Hawks boys’ golf team finished fourth in a four-team meet Tuesday at Useless Bay Golf Course in Langley.
Prep Boys Soccer: Mountlake Terrace at Lynnwood, April 25
Terrace 0 1 0 — 1
Lynnwood 1 0 1 — 2
Goal scorers:
Ryley Johnson (Lynnwood), unassisted, in the 19th minute
Bobby Stoyanov (Mountlake Terrace) in the 65th minute
Dane Evanger (Lynnwood), assisted by Ryley Johnson, in the 83rd minute
Yellow cards:
Rofaiel Dawood (Lynnwood) in the 30th minute
Natu Abraham (Mountlake Terrace) in the 32nd minute
Alejandro Villasenor (Lynnwood) in the 60th minute
Gavin Scott (Mountlake Terrace) in the 68th minute
Records: Mountlake Terrace 7-3-0 in 2A/3A Wesco League, 10-4-0 overall; Lynnwood 7-3-0 in 2A/3A Wesco League, 8-5-0 overall
Mountlake Terrace next match: versus Edmonds-Woodway, Friday, April 28, 7:30 p.m. at Edmonds Stadium
Lynnwood next match: versus Marysville-Getchell, Friday, April 28, 7 p.m. at Marysville-Getchell High School
Prep Baseball: Mountlake Terrace at Lynnwood, April 25
Terrace 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 — 3 6 2
Lynnwood 6 0 0 3 0 0 x — 9 16 1
Winning pitcher: Jared Whitman (Lynnwood)
Losing pitcher: Jared Maxfield (Mountlake Terrace)
Records: Mountlake Terrace 8-7 in 2A/3A Wesco League, 9-9 overall; Lynnwood 5-8 in 2A/3A Wesco League, 8-8 overall
Next game: Lynnwood versus Mountlake Terrace, Wednesday, April 26, 4 p.m. at Mountlake Terrace High School
Prep Softball: Mountlake Terrace at Marysville-Pilchuck, April 25
Mountlake Terrace 3 0 0 0 0 6 1 — 10 12 1
Marysville-Pilchuck 1 2 3 2 0 1 0 — 9 14 1
Winning pitcher: Kierra Scott (Mountlake Terrace)
Losing pitcher: Mckenzie Justice (Marysville-Pilchuck)
Records: Mountlake Terrace 9-2 in 2A/3A Wesco League South Conference, 10-3 overall; Marysville-Pilchuck 7-5 in 3A Wesco League North Conference, 8-6 overall
Mountlake Terrace next game: versus Arlington, Thursday, April 27, 4 p.m. at Mountlake Terrace High School
Prep Boys Golf: Mountlake Terrace vs. South Whidbey, Marysville-Pilchuck, Kings’, April 25 (14 holes, par 55, at Useless Bay Golf Course in Langley)
Team scores
South Whidbey 349
Marysville-Pilchuck 355
Kings’ 360
Mountlake Terrace 463
Mountlake Terrace individual scores
Morgan Subert 69
Jacob Largent 73
Emmett Johnson 91
Brandon Nguyen 113
Drew Daly 117
Mountlake Terrace next match: versus Shorecrest, Thursday, April 27, 2:45 p.m. at Jackson Park Golf Course
–By Doug Petrowski