The Mercer Island Boys Soccer team won in a 3-1 victory against the Hazen Highlanders on Thursday, April 25.
In their last match against Hazen, MI also came out on top, but many players described the match as having been far too close. This time, the Islanders ruled the field, with the Highlanders only winning back their dignity through a late game goal.
“Last time we played this team we should not have won,” sophomore Mathias Perrenoud said. “I think this time we definitely dominated.”
The game began with a Mercer Island kickoff and quickly flew out of bounds, leading to a series of throw-ins. This rough start continued, as Perrenoud attempted to score on goal, but unfortunately lost control of the ball and went out of bounds.
For the first 10 minutes, the Islanders were primarily on the back foot, maintaining possession but frequently being pushed on to defense. Senior captain Woody Brown, senior David Lee, and sophomore Tyler Shelton shined throughout the early period of the game, preventing numerous Highlander assaults.
At nine minutes Perrenoud flew the ball down field with senior captain JP Headrick, but Perrenoud was called offsides. Not content with this outcome, just a minute later Perrenoud again made an even stronger run on the goal, but despite his spectacular footwork he simply could not get rid of the ball fast enough, and was slide tackled by the Hazen goalie. As the ball rolled out of bounds, Perrenoud held his head in visible disappointment.
The Islanders then switched into offensive posture. Brown and Headrick made an attempt, followed by junior Cole Nicholson who despite extreme hustle failed to make it to the ball. Despite this, throughout the early part of the game, junior MI goalie Gabe Kiviat was forced to make multiple saves.
As the intensity of the match increased, around 14 minutes into the game senior captain Nick Chou slammed into a Highlander, knocking him to the floor. Less than a minute later, Brown was fouled by a Highlander.
16 minutes in, junior Kai Parker sprinted towards goal from the right and arced the ball through to the air, slamming it into the top left corner of the net to the Hazen goalie’s horror. With this the score was set in favor of the Islanders.
At the 35-minute mark, Perreound made another failed attempt at scoring, and immediately after Brown was seemingly injured, though he sent away his sub and continued playing.
With only around three minutes left in the half, Perrenoud was again on the attack and made a cross through to Headrick who then scored the second goal of the game. By half time the field was drenched by the pouring rain, and the players had to try their best not to slip.
Only three minutes after the beginning of the second half, another one of Perrenoud’s assaults were deflected leading to the Islanders’ first corner kick. As the ball soared through the air, Perrenoud jumped up and managed to score the third goal of the game with an impressive header.
18 minutes into the half, Woody Brown was awarded a foul for pushing a Hazen player which led to a penalty kick. The Highlanders shot on goal only to be deflected, the battle for the ball raged on before eventually another shot was attempted which missed the goal entirely.
The match was now 25 minutes into the second half and senior Alex Findlay jumped into the air seemingly touching the ball with his hand, but no foul was called and play continued. Shortly afterwards, a shot was fired by the Highlanders at the goalie senior Lucas Moraca, who caught the ball but slipped and fell to the ground.
At 33 minutes, Findlay got three headers in a row on defense. Lucas Shelton made a play and took a shot, but failed to score.
With less than five minutes left in the game, the Islanders began to slow down, and it was clear they were beginning to take their foot off of the gas. However, it was just during this moment, with now only two minutes left on the clock, that Hazen took a shot on goal which the MI goalie only barely deflected.
In the chaos following the deflection, Hazen was awarded a penalty shot. The kicker waited a while as the crowd watched anxiously. After a false start, the Highlander player made a clean and simple kick which the MI goalie failed to predict, and Hazen scored their one and only goal of the game.
“Hazen came out strong, definitely wanting to make up for their loss last time, but I think we shut that down early.” Perrenoud said, summarizing the match. “We all played together as a team, and the score reflects that, the three goals were all scored by different players, so it was definitely a team effort.”
