Tahoma vs. Kentwood. Kentwood vs. Tahoma.<\/p>\n
Here they go again.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve already played twice during the current boys soccer season. But this time, when the two neighborhood rivals step onto the turf, it\u2019ll be more than just a regular-season match. More than even a rivalry match.<\/p>\n
This one is for a trip to the Class 4A state tournament. Winner goes. Loser doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing that needs to be said. Let\u2019s just go play and take care of it and play our game,\u201d Kentwood coach Aaron Radford said on Wednesday after his Conquerors dropped a 1-0 overtime decision to Puyallup in a South Puget Sound League championship match at Bethel High School that was well worthy of the \u201cchampionship match\u201d label.<\/p>\n
That outcome gave Kentwood the league\u2019s No. 2 seed for today\u2019s Class 4A West Central District playoffs. And on this year\u2019s bracket, that means a contest against the No. 5 SPSL seed \u2013 a spot which Tahoma earned with a 1-0 shootout victory against Beamer on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
Now, after two tight regular-season battles \u2013 both of which were won by the Bears, 3-2 in a hailstorm and 2-1 in much nicer conditions \u2013 they\u2019ll meet up again, kicking off today at 11 a.m. at Bethel High.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had some rough starts with some players being gone the first few games,\u201d said Tahoma goalkeeper Chad Burgess, who emerged as the hero against Beamer on Wednesday night with two saves on the Titans\u2019 five tries in the penalty-kick shootout. \u201cWe just came back on fire, and we\u2019d just like to keep it going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kentwood (11-4-2), the SPSL North Division champion, and Puyallup (13-1-2), the South winner, looked like they were headed for a shootout, as well. The teams spent all 80 minutes of regulation time and the first five-minute golden-goal overtime trading momentum, trading near-misses, and trading just about every other element that factors into a title game.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had three potential (goals) that went into the box \u2013 they just didn\u2019t go that final foot,\u201d Radford said. \u201cThey had some good shots that we blocked. We just couldn\u2019t stop that last one. We put out the best hard-work effort that we could muster up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat last one\u201d came 1 minute, 22 seconds into the second and final OT. After what could have been the winning goal for the Conquerors was kicked off the line 30 seconds into the overtime, the Vikings came back downfield. The ball went into the penalty area restraining arc, where Justin Veltung ran onto it and fired it into the back left corner an instant before Kentwood goalkeeper Mitch Pombrio could get to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne team would get better, then the other team would get some more confidence,\u201d Radford said. \u201cThat\u2019s how a first place vs. first place match should play out: down to the wire and slug it out, and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bears stem the tide<\/b><\/p>\n
Tahoma and Beamer went down to the wire and then some, playing 90 minutes of scoreless soccer that started out very much in Beamer\u2019s favor before the Bears were able to turn the tide somewhat. And the Bears did it without midfielder and North Division MVP Evan Denmark in the lineup. (He was out for academic reasons.)<\/p>\n
\u201cThey attacked in waves, and they were dangerous in terms of possession,\u201d Tahoma coach Lance Fischbach said. \u201cThe second half got better for us, and they got rattled a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Darioush Kazemi gave Tahoma the initial lead in the shootout. Then Burgess, who subbed in for starting goalkeeper John Thompson at the start of the second overtime (only players who are on the field at the final whistle can participate in the shootout) saved Beamer\u2019s first try.<\/p>\n
The Bears fell behind 2-1 through three rounds when Ryan Chase\u2019s shot was saved and Britton Jolley\u2019s went wide left. James Schmidt knotted it at 2-2 for Tahoma, and Burgess kept it even with another save.<\/p>\n
That brought it to the fifth and final round. Brad Hwang drilled his shot into the back left corner for a 3-2 Tahoma lead. Then, Beamer\u2019s Jordan Hale watched his shot bounce off the right side of the crossbar, sealing the win for the Bears.<\/p>\n
Putting in Burgess, who was the starting keeper earlier in the season until a change was made to Thompson, was a calculated move on Fischbach\u2019s part.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe worked on penalty kicks (Tuesday), and he performed better,\u201d Fischbach said.<\/p>\n
Like every keeper in that situation, there\u2019s not much in the way of strategy.<\/p>\n
Falcons fall<\/b><\/p>\n
Kentlake\u2019s first trip to the boys soccer playoffs was a short one. The Falcons were eliminted in a shootout by Emerald Ridge on Wednesday night, 1-0.<\/p>\n
The teams played to a 0-0 tie through 80 minutes of regulation time and a pair of five-minute golden-goal overtimes.<\/p>\n
The Jaguars won the shootout, 2-1.<\/p>\n
Kentlake finished the season with a school-best 8-5-4 record. The Falcons took fourth place in the South Puget Sound League North Division at 7-4-3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tahoma vs. Kentwood. Kentwood vs. Tahoma.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-18639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18639"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18639\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18639"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=18639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}