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While many on Mountlake Terrace Hawks’ boys soccer team roster were recovering from a bout of the flu in recent days, the real headache for the team Friday night was Lynnwood Royals’ senior Henrry Torres-Hernandez.
Torres-Hernandez scored twice — a converted first-half penalty kick and a nifty looping shot over Hawks’ goalkeeper Owen Haverland in the second half — to lead the Royals to a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over Terrace in a Wesco League South Conference rivalry match played Friday, April 10 at Lynnwood High School.
The two goals pushed Torres-Hernandez’s total for the season to 12 and helped the Royals’ even their Wesco League South Conference record at 3-3-0, 4-4-1 overall.
Terrace Coach Chris Mitalas admitted that his team’s best efforts couldn’t contain Torres-Hernandez on Friday. “We came in with a game plan, trying to man-mark him out of the game — doesn’t seem to work,” Mitalas said. “He’s a good kid, good mentality, good for their team.”
Torres-Hernandez’s penalty shot opportunity came after the Lynnwood co-captain was tripped in the 18-yard box by Hawks defender Andrew Seyler in the 37th minute. Mitalas gave Torres-Hernandez credit for drawing the foul in order to get to the penalty spot.
“I think it was (a foul),” Mitalas said, “but, again, it’s (due) to his creativity. He’s a creative player. He finds those avenues and exploits them.”
Torres-Hernandez’s successful penalty kick goal knotted the game at 1-1 as the Hawks had scored first in the 20th minute. Seyler was able to reach a Abdalaziz Alhaj Mussa corner kick and head it into the Lynnwood goal from 10 yards out to give Terrace the early 1-0 advantage.
After the Royals had dominated play during those first 20 minutes, Torres-Hernandez said the Hawk goal was tough for his team to swallow but also served as a motivator for the rest of the game.
“Obviously, that’s devastating, knowing that we are controlling the game and they get a goal on us first,” Torres-Hernandez said. “But we look at it as a challenge and we bounce back from that. And the score tells, we came back.”
After halftime, it was the Hawks who had two early opportunities to get back on top. But a blast from the corner of the 18-yard box by junior Rafeal Tewolde soared over the right corner of the Lynnwood goal five minutes into the second half. Then, three minutes later, a shot by Ash Jeffers from 30 yards out just sailed past the left side of the goal.
It was less than a minute later that Torres-Hernandez and the Royals didn’t miss on their chance to take the lead. With an assist from junior Omar Somom, Torres-Hernandez gently looped a shot over the head of a charging Haverland to give Lynnwood the 2-1 advantage.
Then in the 65th minute, Lynnwood’s Vladyslav Tarasiuk beat Haverland to a loose ball in the 18-yard box and scored to give Lynnwood an important insurance goal.
Tarasiuk’s score was pivotal as the Hawks picked up a goal in the 78th minute when senior Nick Portillo, after being tripped up by Lynnwood goalkeeper Gustavo Aguilera-Torres in the 18-yard box, scored on a penalty kick.
Both Aguilera-Torres and Haverland made key saves throughout the back-and-forth match to give their teams a chance. Aguilera-Torres’ best save came in the 20th minute as he had to dive to stop a shot by Portillo. Haverland made a diving stop in the 75th minute — and made a save with his face in the 20th minute.
Friday’s match was the first meeting in the second half of the season for both teams. Torres-Hernandez, certainly on his way to a first team All-Wesco League selection this year, likes where his Royals team is standing midway through the season.
“I feel like we’re in a great spot. We’ve progressed,” Torres-Hernandez said. “The only issue is we can be better; we could put more on the field, we could do more as a team. But we don’t mind the results that we’re getting as we work hard.”
“We’ve grown from our past results and I think we’ve going to come out with better outcomes in the games coming forward,” he added.
For Mitalas, his Hawks have just two wins so far this year (2-4-0 in 2A/3A Wesco League South Conference play, 2-6-1 overall) and need to pick up some victories to secure a spot in the postseason District 1 tournament next month. Mitalas hopes, with improved health, the team can get some better results in their final seven games of the regular season.
“There’s a few corrections I think I need to make,” Mitalas said. “For the most part, we had our spring break this week but the majority of our team was out with the flu. This is about the first game back where everybody is just coughing…no fever, no nothing. Not necessarily where we want to be but we’ll keep chipping away.”
Both Lynnwood and Terrace will next line up against teams that have yet to pick up a Wesco League victory this year. The Royals will face 0-5-2 Archbishop Murphy on Tuesday, April 14, while the Hawks will host 0-5-1 Meadowdale on the same day
Prep Boys Soccer: Mountlake Terrace at Lynnwood, April 10
Mountlake Terrace 1 1 – 2
Lynnwood 1 2 – 3
Goal scorers:
– Andrew Seyler (Mountlake Terrace), assisted by Abdalaziz Alhaj Mussa, in the 30th minute
– Henry Torres-Hernandez (Lynnwood), penalty kick, in the 37th minute
– Henry Torres-Hernandez (Lynnwood), assisted by Omar Somom, in the 48th minute
– Vladyslav Tarasiuk (Lynnwood), unassisted, in the 65th minute
– Nick Portillo (Mountlake Terrace), penalty kick, in the 78th minute
Shots:
– Mountlake Terrace, 11
– Lynnwood, 15
Saves:
– Owen Haverland (Mountlake Terrace), 4
– Gustavo Aguilera-Torres (Lynnwood), 7
Corner kicks:
– Mountlake Terrace, 3
– Lynnwood, 2
Yellow cards:
– Kaue Basso De Souza Machado (Lynnwood), in the 62nd minute
Records: Mountlake Terrace 2-4-0 in 2A/3A Wesco League South Conference, 2-6-1 overall; Lynnwood 3-3-0 in 2A/3A Wesco League South Conference, 4-4-1 overall
Mountlake Terrace next match: versus Meadowdale; Tuesday, April 14; 7:30 p.m. at Lynnwood High School
Lynnwood next match: versus Archbishop Murphy; Tuesday, April 14; 7 p.m. at Archbishop Murphy High School
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