Eagles Lead Early Over Bellevue, Never Look Back.

At last- we finally have the first of the heavyweight battles in Bellevue vs. Issaquah.  The reigning state champs offer an undefeated beginning to 2009, and an untested dynamic offense led by captains Goldstein, Director and Goodman at Midfield.  Bellevue enters tonight with an undefeated conference record that is more like an albatross than a blessing.  Bellevue fights to show they can do more than just slug it out; they are among the top DI squad and more importantly, a playoff team.  Payback and pride fuel the rising wolverines- we are in for a good one…

With 6:42 remaining in the first, Jake Director dodges right and shoots left down the alley scoring the games first goal. The energy in the stadium is among the best that we’ve seen this year. The PA announcer just mentioned that this was the best crowd of the year even though it looks to be half and half for both schools – solid showing for Bellevue.
The next goal would mark a trend that would repeat itself two more times into the second quarter. Todd Jones would find Jake Fritz on a great cut through the middle of the Wolverine defense. Cole Nordstrom would be the first to find net for Bellevue unassisted with 11 seconds left making the score 2-1 Issaquah at the end of one.

Issaquah would start the second quarter man down due to an illegal stick penalty giving Bellevue a great opportunity to get back into the game. That idea evaporated quickly as the Issaquah defense outplayed the penalty surrendering only one shot.  Jake Director would intercept a pass and run the length of the field eventually finding Jones who would dish it to, you guessed it. Jake Fritz. With 8:27 left in the quarter, that connection would find each other again pushing the lead to 4-1. For most of the second period Issaquah would dominate the time of possession ringing three shots off the pipe and controlling ground balls. Eric Omry would have Bellevue’s second goal on a nice feed from Blake Samuel 3 minutes and 25 seconds after the last goal. Cole Nordstrom would score his second of the night 27 seconds later giving Bellevue a little shot of energy as well as the first back to back goals of the evening.
With just under 2 minutes left in the half Issaquah would dodge another man down situation eventually leading to another Jones to Fritz connection. Riley Goodman who was having his way at the X all night and unofficially lead the Eagles with groundballs would score with 8 seconds left going into half giving Issaquah a comfortable 6-3 lead at half.

The third would see more Goodman as the "do it all" midfielder would score just under a minute into the second period pushing the lead to 4. One of Bellevue’s stars Attack man Kyle Mutzel would bury his first of the night giving Bellevue 4. Todd Jones would then take things into his own hands scoring unassisted with about 10 minutes left.
What seemed to be the only answer for Bellevue all night was Cole Nordstrom as he would again score his second of the night only to have it answered.  Riley Goldstein and Jake Fritz would both score before the end of the 3rd giving the Eagles an even larger 10-5 lead headed into the fourth.

What wasn’t so clear in the beginning, but transitioned into obvious by this point of the game and throughout the 4th, was that Bellevue just could not stop Issaquah’s offense. Seeming to find open players effortlessly and take advantage of all transition and odd man breaks all night, the Eagles were hitting on all cylinders.
Again Bellevue would make a push scoring the first two goal of the fourth by Nordstrom and Michael Brennan, only to have Sophomores Kevin Powers and Jake Fritz answer right back. The last goal by Fritz would be his 5th goal of the night only to be matched by Bellevue’s Nordstrom who would later score his 5th of the game with 53 seconds left. Jordan Goldstein would knot a goal of his own in-between.
Final score 13-8 Issaquah over Bellevue.

Photo by Michael Jardine  SoundLacrosse.smugmug.com