The third time proved to the attraction, though not with out a little little bit of rigidity.
Freshman Colin Hermes punched a mishandled ball in entrance of the objective within the 74th minute to elevate the King’s Means Christian boys soccer group to a 2-1 win over Klahowya of Silverdale in a Class 1A state round-of-20 playoff on Tuesday.
With the primary state playoff win in program historical past, the No. 13 Knights advance to play fourth-seeded Overlake of Seattle on Friday in Seattle.
“Two years back-to-back losing our first state game was pretty tough,” King’s Means senior Luke Gomes mentioned. “Me and (Asher Wyckoff) have been around since eighth grade, so we were coming into this game like ‘We can’t lose.’ Had a rough game out there to be honest, but all the boys came together and got the win.”
The Knights appeared like they’d issues properly in hand within the first half, when their fixed stress produced a number of nook kicks.
A type of nook kicks by Rylan Richter was transformed with a header by Wyckoff within the twenty fourth minute for a 1-0 lead for the Knights.
“My guy Rylan, he played a beautiful ball and I just saw it coming in,” Wyckoff mentioned. “I don’t know, I just decided to put a head on it. I guess it plays pretty well. Yeah, it felt pretty good.”
The Knights took a 1-0 lead into halftime, then realized the significance of including on.
Klahowya transformed one of many few good probabilities the Knights gave them within the second half to tie the match within the 66th minute.
However after dropping within the first spherical at Cascade of Leavenworth in 2023 and at residence to Meridian final yr, the Knights had been decided to not let this chance get away from them.
“Every team we play in state, we have the mindset that they’re going to be good,” Wyckoff mentioned. “They’re going to not obviously go out without a fight. We just have to keep fighting. We don’t want our season to be over, so we’re going to keep going.”
That helped produce the Knights’ game-winner within the 74th minute when Gomes fed a protracted cross into the Klahowya objective. Goalkeeper Hunter Howell acquired his arms on the ball, however then had it slip from his grasp.
Hermes was there to punch the ball into the objective.
“I saw Colin on the backside, (but) I played it a little too far left,” Gomes mentioned. “We just got a lucky bounce. You’re going to get those lucky chances, you’ve got to capitalize on them. And we did.”
It hasn’t all the time been a easy highway this season below first-year coach Andy Thoma.
The Knights fought via accidents to complete third within the Trico League. Then they needed to battle again from a loss to Columbia-White Salmon within the district semifinals to earn a berth to state.
“With my first year coming in, there is a culture change from the previous coach,” Thoma mentioned. “However the boys have responded very well. We had a few large accidents that sort of gradual us up in components of the yr once we weren’t taking part in at our full velocity.
“Tonight, the boys came in really hard. A lot of them are still nursing some injuries, and none of them wanted to come off. So my hats off to them across the board.”
With a primary state win achieved, subsequent comes a tall order towards Overlake, the defending 1A state champion.
“We’re prepared to play our best soccer for anybody we go against,” Wyckoff mentioned. “And it’s just going to go like that for the rest of the season. We’re going to take it to them, whoever they are.”
