Mount Si High’s girls soccer team is on a second-half tear. If things continue to go their way, they are on track to bring home the Kingco championship and an automatic berth to the state tournament.
The Wildcats took care of Mercer Island last Tuesday, Oct. 14, 1-0. Nikki Stanton scored the team’s, and game’s, lone goal as Mount Si got a key victory.
Last Thursday, Oct. 16, Mount Si traveled to Interlake to take on the last-place Saints. The Wildcats controlled possession for about 75 percent of the contest, and got another solid effort from their college-bound senior as Mount Si dispatched Interlake.
Stanton scored a pair of goals to lead the Wildcats to the 3-0 win.
Things started out a bit slow for Mount Si as the offense was unable to score early despite continually peppering Interlake keeper Brenda Agus with shot after shot. Several of those early shots came courtesy of Caylene Castagno, who has enjoyed a solid season in the midfield for the Wildcats. In the 28th minute, though, Agus finally buckled under the pressure of all those shots. Mount Si’s Brittany Conway fired a shot at the Interlake keeper, and it appeared that she had stopped the shot from going in. However, Agus misplayed the save attempt and the ball squirted in past her into the net, giving the Wildcats the lead.
“I got lucky on that,” Conway said.
Mount Si took the 1-0 lead into the second half, when Stanton struck. First, in the 42nd minute, after another barrage of shots on the Interlake keeper, the Wildcat senior hit paydirt. Hockey goalkeeping legend Patrick Roy was known for coming way out of his goal to play the puck trying to prevent opposing offenses from scoring on his goal, and soccer goalie Agus tried to do the same type of thing — come way out of her goal to play the ball in an attempt to prevent Stanton from scoring. Stanton got past Agus with the ball, and fired it home into an empty net to make it 2-0.
“I saw Steph pass a through ball,” Stanton said. “I did what I was supposed to do. I ran for it; the keeper came out, she had a missed touch, so I just finished it.”
Stanton’s second goal came on another misplayed save attempt by Agus in the 59th minute, and that goal made it 3-0.
Late in the game, Wildcat Alexis Pearlstein was assessed a yellow card for a hard foul on an Interlake player which came at the end of a short battle between the two players.
The victory, combined with a Bellevue tie at Juanita and an MI loss to Liberty, leaves Mount Si in first place coming into this week. If the Wildcats win both their games this week, at home against Bellevue and at Juanita, Mount Si will win their first league girls’ soccer title in 20 years and make a state appearance for the first time since 2006.
“We control our destiny at this point. We have to win and take care of that,” said Wildcat coach Darren Brown.
Mount Si is at Juanita Thursday, Oct. 23. Game time is 7:30 p.m. The campus is located on Northeast 132nd Street in Kirkland west of I-405.
