Northwest Invitational: Palo Verde (NV) vs Woodinville (WA)
The Woodinville Falcons finds their rhythm in the second quarter as they push through visiting Nevada team the Palo Verde Panthers in a 10-5 Northwest Invitational match-up on Saturday. Story by Michael Thornbloom
The Panthers appeared to have full control of this game starting from the first quarter. Woodinville was struggling to hold onto possession for the first 12 minutes giving Palo Verde opportunities to create good looks and grab a couple goals. It looked like anyone’s game after a few minutes into the second quarter when Palo Verde answered a Falcon goal with one of their own making it a 3-2 game in Panther’s favor.
As soon as the Falcons mitigated their turnovers their game significantly improved. Junior attackman Mason Leet (5g, 4a) began his monster run in this game with two goals and two assists in the second quarter alone. He was working in tandem with fellow teammate senior attackman Thomas Pollon (2g, 2a) assisting the two goals he got in this game. Together they wreaked havoc on the visiting Panther team causing too many problems for them to bounce back from.
“He’s been a huge part of our offense.” Falcon’s head coach Pete Crowley comments on Leet’s performance. “He’s probably going to be our player of the week this week. Great assist, goal scorer and has great vision of the game.” This was apparent in a game where he participated in 90% of the final score.
Crowley has his sights on playoffs and wants to use any and every game on their schedule as a platform to dive from for a deep playoff run. “We’re just looking to keep building on our momentum after the Mercer Island game.” Said Crowley. “We’re just looking to get out real hot in the beginning and just keep building our momentum towards the playoffs in May.”
They will need to find a way to keep this momentum rolling with a slow schedule following this game. The Falcons get to host Lake Washington in a non-league match-up on March 30 before their next conference game at Skyline (0-1) April 3. The Skyline Spartans will be a real test for Woodinville as they could easily face each other again in the playoffs this season.
Story by Michael Thornbloom