The Mount Si High School boys soccer team went into their Friday, April 30, home game on a mission: to win the league title and make the state tournament for the first time in school history. For their mission to continue, the Wildcats needed to get past a Sammamish team that was battling Mount Si for that chance to take the crown. Thanks to a couple of big second-half goals from one of their top seniors, the Wildcat boys are still on the road to a possible championship.

Doug Silvius scored both goals ten minutes apart from one another in the second half to lift Mount Si to a 2-0 win over the Totems. The win gives them the inside track to take the Kingco title. If the Wildcats win both of their games this week, against Interlake and Juanita, Mount Si will clinch the league crown and the number one spot from the SeaKing District into the state tournament, which is expected to result in a home-field advantage all the way to the semifinals.

“I’m proud of the boys,” said Mount Si coach Darren Brown.

It was 0-0 at halftime, so the team knew they had to pick up momentum, Brown said.

“We had to play more aggressive,” he said. “We had to play more physical and we had to create for ourselves. In the second half, we came out, we played our game and that’s what happens. If we do that for 80 minutes, I don’t know who can beat us.”

The two teams played a very defensive first half, with very few scoring opportunities for either side. Things heated up early in the second half, though, when Dyson Fowler fired a shot on Sammamish goalie Stuart Ellsworth which deflected off the junior and the crossbar. It appeared to go in, but actually went over the net and out of play, handing the Wildcats a corner kick, which missed the net.

But the momentum was clearly shifting in Mount Si’s direction, and in the 64th minute, Silvius struck. Fowler came in down the sideline in front of the Mount Si bench and fired a pass toward his senior teammate, who used his head to rip a wicked laser into the net past Ellsworth to put the Wildcats on top.

“Dyson took it down the sideline,” Silvius said. “I got to the back post and he played in a good cross and I just finished it. It was pretty easy on my part.”

That was not all. In the 74th minute, Silvius took an Ellsworth misplay and raced toward an empty net and punched it in for the insurance goal. From there, the defense took over and shut things down the rest of the way. After the game ended, following the postgame handshake, the large crowd of Mount Si students rushed the field in celebration and congratulated the team.

Even the boys who are out injured are enjoying the ride.

“It’s fun to watch. I wish I was a part of it, but all I can do is support whatever way I can,” said defender Willie Jensen, who has spent most of the season sidelined due to injury.

The Wildcats are ready for what clearly is the biggest week in the history of boys soccer at this high school. They know what is at stake.

“That number-one seed, that’s what we’re all after,” Brown said. “These boys want it real bad. They want that banner up on the wall.”

Mount Si plays Juanita at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 6. That game is Senior Night.