With all of the seeding all sorted out and the bracket locked in, all of Washington got geared up for the first round of the 2016 WHSBLA PLayoffs, starting on Tuesday night with the Skyline Spartans (13-6) visit to the turf of the Tahoma Bears (14-6). Coached by Sam Hutson, the Spartans captured the 5th spot out of KingCo which would match them against Coach Brian Johnson and his Bears, the top seed out of the SPSL. The first meeting between the two squads took place at Skyline in the beginning of April when the Spartans cruised away with a 15 to 6 victory. Since their return from a spring break trip to California, the Bears remained unbeaten through their last eights games of the season and looked to carry the momentum into the first round’s showdown under the lights in the Maple Valley. The Spartans have also done well since their midseason tests in Nevada, they’ve won all of their remaining games except to Bellevue and Issaquah, losing both by a six goal margin.

A perfect night was painted at Tahoma High School as the sun started to drop and the lights came on right before the playing of the Star Spangled Banner. After a few brief words with the officials, the men took to their positions as the tension mounted for the first whistle. The fans didn’t have to wait long for the first finish of the evening, after a few touches on both ends of the field, Tahoma freshman Carter Warm got the first shot past goaltender Cam DeWeirdt to crack the ice. From there it was senior attackman Trevor Larsen punching in the next shot to give the Bears a quick, 2-0, lead over the Spartans. Digging in his heels to revers the momentum, captain Sam Taaffe took the ball to the rack, burying the first Skyline goal to wake up the visiting sideline. A few minutes would pass before sophomore Nathan Brandt stepped up for his team and knotted the score, but it would be the last Spartan goal for over fifteen minutes of play. After losing the lead, Warm stepped up again for Tahoma, burying his second of the game before midfielder Dominic Barger would follow suit and sink one of his own, extending the Bears’ lead to 4-2 at the end of the first quarter.

The second frame told a story quite different from the first. Both defenses played at the top of their abilities, backed by strong goaltending from Skyline’s DeWeirdt and Tyler Powell for Tahoma. Only Matty Taylor would send a shot through the pipes for the Bears despite both offenses consistently knocking on the doorstep. Slow and deliberate possessions were thwarted off by persistent on and off ball defending, sending the game into the half with Tahoma leading, 5-2. Both teams took the field with intense focus after a fairly quiet halftime, mentally locked in to the task at hand. Lighting up the scoreboard first was Barger, back for his second tally of the game pushing the Bears up to 6 goals before the Spartans would look to turn the ship around. Starting with Nolan Eggert, Skyline started to chip away at the deficit with one goal at a time and senior Blake Carpenter would get in line, charging Tahoma for his first goal of the game, tightening the score to 6-4 heading into the final quarter of play.

With momentum now behind them, the Spartans wasted very little time in the fourth before sending a flurry of shots at the cage, with most, if not all, coming from set offense. Things clicked first for Carpenter’s second goal in a row, followed by a string from Taaffe and Eggert to give Skyline their first lead before Carpenter would return to secure his hat trick. Clearing the ball all by himself, sophomore long pole Will Carson split the defense and ripped a shot on cage, burying the 6th goal of the Skyline run, 4th of the quarter, now giving the visitor’s a 9-6 lead with only minutes left. Coming up clutch for the Bears once again was the freshman, Carter Warm, scoring their first goal in over a quarter’s time, closing the gap to two goals. Larsen, a captain of the Bears, would put his team on his back and ring up a late goal to bring the game within one, but safe ball handling by the Spartans would maintain possession in the box for the last two minutes, killing out the clock to take the win, 9-8.

A fantastic season and dominant first half performance was cut short by a late rally from the scrappy Spartans. Skyline will now set their sights on Bainbridge who took down Woodinville, 16-7, also on Tuesday night. The Spartans will take the ferry out to Bainbridge Island for a 7 p.m. start on Friday, the winner will meet either O’Dea or Bellevue in the Semifinals.