If it hadn’t been for a free kick on the edge of the goal box two minutes into the game, the match between Mercer Island and Interlake would have probably been much different.
Tuesday night on the Island, that corner kick turned out to be all the difference – sending Interlake to their first loss of the season, 1-0.
The goal was scored by Celina Solomon, and forced Interlake to play catch up the rest of the night.
The Saints, now 4-1 this season, felt the game was a good indicator of how they are playing this season.
“I think we can take some momentum away (from this),” said head coach Jeff McCabe. “We obviously haven’t had the most success in KingCo in the last few years. We came out with a couple of strong games, and I think to know that to play with one of the top teams in KingCo as close as we did, I think we know we can really play with everything in this league now. It’s not a fluke or being lucky anymore, we know we can play and I think that’s good momentum to take forward.”
After the goal, both sides were physically matched for the ball, with short bursts of speed downfield for chances which never materialized.
“In the second half, we made some adjustments and put some passes together and I think we put them on their heels a little bit,” said McCabe. “We couldn’t finish one, but I think we did a much better job in the second half.”
McCabe was happy with the way the team moved the ball into the corners, but said simply because of the Islanders middle it was tough to move the ball from there.
“They have a couple of very good players in the back and it was hard to get through the middle. I think we did a nice job of getting to the corners and getting balls played through to the middle,” he said. “It would have been nice if we’d been able to put one away, but we weren’t able to.”
The Saints played Sammamish on Thursday night, after Reporter deadline, and will face off against Mount Si on Tuesday, Sept. 28.
Other games
Juanita 3, Bellevue 0
Karissa Radke scored two goals and Kalia Bass added a third as the Rebels knocked off Bellevue 3-0 in Kirkland. Niki Fausset picked up the shutout in net for Juanita (3-2, 2-1 KingCo 3A/2A). Bellevue fell to 0-4 on the season and 0-3 in league play.
Skyline 2, Newport 0
Skyline continued its big run to open the season as Alexa Strom and Nicole Candioglos both scored goals to help the Spartans (6-0, 1-0 KingCo 4A) beat Newport (1-4, 0-1) 2-0. Tina Vargas got the shutout for the Spartans, who have outscored their opponents 17-0 in just six games this season.
