Opportunity knocked time after time, but Eastlake was unable to answer during its winner-to-state game Tuesday night at Juanita.
The Wolves fell 4-1 to the Rebels, who won their first KingCo 4A title.
Eastlake was the aggressor in the first half, out-shooting Juanita 10-3. The difference, however, was glaring. The Rebels punched in two of their first-half attempts, while the Wolves could only capitalize on one.
“We can’t finish. We haven’t been able to finish all year, said frustrated Eastlake head coach Adam Gervis.
Juanita senior Tyler Bjork was the largest thorn in the side of Eastlake. The league MVP scored both first-half goals and scored a third in the final minute of the game for a hat trick. He punched in his first score in the third minute of the game, taking a pass mid-air from Cameron Johnson and flipping it past Eastlake goalkeeper Mikey Marsh.
The score seemed to wake the Wolves, who turned up the pressure. Senior Easton Fix knotted the contest up five minutes later, blasting in a penalty kick from 30 yards out. Bjork, however, struck again in the 26th minute. The veteran snuck behind Eastlake’s defense on a corner kick, took a short pass and drilled it in the bottom right corner of the net.
“Give the boy his due,” Gervis said. “He got in when he needed to get in and he put the ball away and he finished. He had three shots and he scored three goals, that’s unbelievable.”
Eastlake kept up its pressure but narrowly missed on its attempts. Shots by senior Cutler Gray, sophomore Nick Rudella, senior Justin Lewis and senior Jordan Softli all missed by a matter of inches.
“We took the game to them,” Gervis said. “If they hadn’t scored the second goal, it would have been 4-1 the other way. We just couldn’t get over that hump. We could see their heads were dropping because we’re totally controlling the game.”
The Wolves out-shot the Rebels again in the second half, but again had trouble putting their shots away. Juanita’s Mason Bochner added on to the Rebel lead in the 61st minute, finding a loose ball in the box and converting a one-on-one goal. Bjork scored his third goal in the final minute taking the ball the distance of the field.
Juanita took seven shots the entire game and scored on four of them. Eastlake put in one of its 17 attempts.
“That’s what you live for and you die for, and we haven’t been able to do it all year,” said Gervis of the shot opportunities.
Eastlake’s season was still alive and well as of last night. The Wolves played Bothell in another winner-to-state contest last night. Results occurred after Reporter deadline. In the event of a loss, Eastlake’s season would still be alive. The loser of the Bothell-Eastlake contest travels to face the Greater St. Helen’s League No. 2 team at 2 p.m., tomorrow for a final opportunity to get into the 4A state tournament.
Skyline wins
first-round game
Skyline advanced through the first round of the KingCo 3A tournament Tuesday night, beating Newport 1-0 in a loser-out contest.
Senior David Bretl scored off an assist from freshman Travis Strawn in the 62nd minute to help the Spartans move on. Skyline faced Sammamish last night in another loser-out contest. A Skyline victory yesterday would set up a matchup with the No. 3 team from the Metro League on Saturday at Skyline. A start time was yet to be determined as of press time.
