There were one, two, three, four chances. Then five, six, seven.
Opportunities piled up during Tuesday night’s KingCo 4A soccer matchup between Skyline and Roosevelt, but all to no avail.
“What do you have to do, is there a lid on that thing?,” called out Skyline head coach Don Braman, after his team narrowly missed two shots in the 71st minute.
Neither team broke the seal, however, as the contest ended in a 0-0 tie, after two 40-minute halves and two 5-minute overtimes.
Roosevelt ripped 15 shots on goal, while Skyline had seven — five of which came in the second half.
Skyline’s best opportunities came in the final 10 minutes of regulation. Braxton Griffin received a perfect cross on a corner kick, heading the ball past Rough Rider goal keeper Leo Cohen. Cohen slowed the ball enough to have it die on the goal line, and a Roosevelt defender cleared it quickly. Moments later Pedro Miola got off a solid blast on a cross from Giancarlo Santoro, but just missed to the right.
“We could have played better than we did tonight, but we also could have won this one,” Braman said.
While the offense struggled, Skyline’s defense, led by goalkeeper Brian Schwartz, was impenetrable. Schwartz had seven saves, including a huge play in the final seconds of the second overtime. Roosevelt’s Tolga Dilek blasted a shot from about 20 yards out, and Schwartz sprawled out to his left, parallel to the ground to bat the ball away.
“Brian came up with some important saves for us tonight,” Braman said. “I thought he did a good job with a couple of well-struck balls on frame.”
Schwartz earned his third shutout of the season, and Skyline moved to 2-2-1 in league and 3-4-2 overall. The Spartans had a three-game win streak broken the previous week, tying Gig Harbor 0-0 and losing to Bellarmine Prep — the No. 3 ranked team in the nation — 1-0.
Skyline, which hosts Inglemoor at 7:30 p.m., Friday, is in a three-way tie with Garfield and Redmond for seventh place. The top six KingCo teams advance to the playoffs.
“We’re still right there in the middle,” Braman said.
Issaquah stumbles on road
Issaquah, which was ranked No. 10 in the latest National Soccer Coaches Association West poll, got knocked off, 2-1, by Ballard on Tuesday night. The Eagles trailed 1-0 at the half, but battled back to knot the game in the 54th minute on an unassisted goal from Manuel Brugger. The Beavers struck just minutes later, however, scoring on a Brent Campbell goal. Issaquah dropped to 3-2 in league and 8-2 overall with the loss. Ballard earned its first win of the season and improved to 1-3-1 in league and 3-4-1 overall.
Eastlake battles to tie
Eastlake battled Garfield to a 2-2 tie Tuesday night. The Bulldogs got two penalty kick goals from Oeyvind Worpvik. Eastlake moved to 3-1-1 in league and 3-3-2 overall. The Wolves currently have 10 points in the league standings, placing them third overall.
