It’s the sort of thing most parents would frown on: kids talking on the phone way too late.
Sometimes, though, exceptions simply must be made.
Such as when the school’s boys soccer team makes the playoffs for the first time ever.
“Coach called me at 10 o’clock and said, ‘Guess what just happened?’ Kentlake High senior defender Troy Brunner said of that conversation last Tuesday night with Falcons head man Kyle Jones.
“Yeah – 11 o’clock on a school night, and we couldn’t stop calling each other,” chimed in junior forward Drew Landram.
Suffice to say the Falcons had plenty to talk about. They had just pulled out a 1-0 victory against division-leading Kentwood on an early goal by Brunner and freshman goalkeeper Brandon Shipley’s fifth shutout of the season.
That was the early game at French Field. After most of the Falcons had headed home, Kentridge and Kent-Meridian stepped onto the turf for their game. And when the winless Royals scored with three minutes left to pull out a 2-2 tie, that meant that KR, while still in the playoff hunt, couldn’t catch Kentlake no matter what happened in the finales.
The Falcons were in.
“This is one of the most special times in my life,” Brunner said. “I’m glad to be a part of it.”
Tonight, after a decade of missing out – often by a long way – Kentlake (8-4-4 overall) will step onto the turf for a postseason game. It’s no gimme – as the fourth-place finisher in the South Puget Sound League North Division, the Falcons will take on South No. 4 Emerald Ridge at 6 p.m. at Tahoma High.
The winner survives to play another day, that being Saturday in the Class 4A West Central District playoffs. The loser is done for the year.
Brunner, for one, has no plans to make it a short stay.
“It’s our time,” he said. “Kentlake has had some good players through the years, but never made the playoffs.”
The Falcons head to the postseason on somewhat of a bittersweet note. In last Friday night’s regular-season finale, they built a 2-0 first-half lead against perennial power Jefferson, only to see the Raiders come back with a pair of second-half goals and pull out a 2-2 tie.
That gave the Falcons a final record of 7-4-3 and 24 points in league play, one point behind red-hot Tahoma, which won or tied 10 of its final 11 games to snag third place.
Still, throughout an intense 80 minutes against Jefferson, the Falcons got an early idea of what things will be like from here on out.
“It was really good (to get a game like that),” Landram said. “We’re so excited, it’ll help fuel us for the next couple games.”
Jones sensed from the start of turnouts in late February that this squad had the tools to construct a playoff berth.
“When you haven’t had success, the toughest thing to instill is the confidence that we can win,” Jones said.
“Believing in yourself is the one hurdle we had to get over.”
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