The Final Beat

If you weren't at Mercer Island high school on Saturday....WHERE THE HECK WERE YOU????

State B Championship: After a host of middle school games, Port Angeles capped a perfect season capturing the B Division title for the first time in their history.  Lead by Coach of the Year Bob Baumstark, the Roughriders were held to a slow start thanks in large part to a very patient Panther offense.  The team comprised of players from Garfield/Seattle Prep played very smart in the first half and after leading 1-0 only trailed 3-1 at half.  It was especially impressive to see as the very young squad was in their first year of existence.  Starting several freshman and lacking any seniors on the roster, the Panther LC simply ran out of gas and Port Angeles' guns began to fire.  Scott Cline lead the charge with 5 goals and the Roughriders came away victorious 8-3.

As the dust settled on Port Angeles' championship, the A Division final took center stage and oh what a good one it was.

State A Championship: For the first time since 1993, there is a new A Division state champion as the Mercer Island Islanders dethroned the 7-time defending champions in what has to go down as one of the great ones!!!

Shame on you if you weren't there and shame on the local papers for giving the story a three sentence blurb.  In my opinion this had to be one of the better events ever to occur in the history of high school sports in the state of Washington.  Here's a real recap for those that missed it and those still savoring the moment.

After a rather gray sky day, the sun began to peak through the clouds as the first whistle blew.  Bainbridge got off to a quick start and bolted to a quick 2-0 lead.  However, Mercer kept their composure and battled right back.  Dave Biehn found Daniel Frankel on a drive from behind the cage to put Mercer on the board.  Scott Pattison then tied the game finding a loose ball near the crease and dumping it neatly under Charlie Delius.  From there, The Islanders just kept rolling, dominated possesion and continued to find the net.

With Mercer up 5-2, Bainbridge gathered the ball in their own end and looked to head the other way.  Good pressure forced a poor clearing pass though and Biehn was able to pick it off and find the back of the net.  Another hustle play by Biehn had him winning a groundball behind the cage and feeding Alex Gumprehct who extended the lead to 7-2.

Three more goals would follow and the Islanders went into halftime with a 10-2 lead!!!

Could this really be happening???  This is what we had all been accustomed to watching the mighty Spartans do in the finals.  The murmurs flew the crowd…Mercer would have to keep it up…there is no way Bainbridge would settle for this.

Sure enough, 15 seconds into the 3^rd quarter, Jesse Fairbanks got the ball rolling and the Spartans began picking away at the lead.  Four unanswered goals, ending with a wheeling jump shot from Adam Smith and the lead had been cut to 10-6 less than 3 minutes into the second half.  However, to the Islanders credit, every time Bainbridge through a big punch, they absorbed it and had an answer. 

Again Dave Biehn took control.  Another drive and dish to Gumprecht preceded a pretty transition goal finished by Eli Sonkin and Mercer pushed right back to 12-6.  A slash on Mercer gave Bainbridge a man-up and Fairbanks quickly finished.  But right back came MI as Geoff Thilo bolted out on a fast-break.  A screaming pass straight to the crease and another Frankel finish made it 13-7.

A series of penalties on both teams lead to a brief five on five and then a Bainbridge man-up.  Jesse Fairbanks was at it again scoring during both situations to make it 13-9.  The teams then traded goals.  With under a minute left in the quarter, Mercer had the ball and seemingly were in great position to enter the final quarter up by four.  However, a costly off-sides gave Bainbridge the ball back.  Fairbanks again!!!  His 6^th of the day!

The score now stood at 14-11.  Bainbridge scored 9 goals in the quarter!  Somehow the two teams managed to fit 13 goals into only 12 minutes of action.  A very entertaining quarter only left the crowd hungry for more in the 4^th.  The game would tighten up a bit, there was still plenty of drama to come.

The quarter opened relatively quietly until just under two minutes in.  Failing to clear the ball, Mercer's Solazzi took a big lick and Bainbridge's Jacob Hayashi quickly pounced on the ball and hit the open net.  Momentum seemed to be shifting as Spartan fans went nuts as Solazzi and Mercer stood frustrated and seemingly rattled.

Again Mercer would look to counter-punch.  Another drive and dish from Biehn to Frankel appeared to put MI back on top, but Biehn was called for a creases violation on his drive from behind the cage and the goal was disallowed.  Bainbridge had caught a break and was still only down two.  However, on the ensuing possesion, another poor clearing pass was picked off by Sonkin at the midfield stripe.  He fed Biehn who stayed out of the crease and made it 15-12.

With 7 minutes left to play, Bainbridge made another costly error as with a chance to keep possession in their offensive end, Hayashi errantly pushed the ball over the endline.  Mercer would capitalize and just over a minute later, Biehn found the back of the net again to extend to 16-12.

Hayashi would quickly redeem himself though as a little more than 30 seconds later he somehow found his way through 3 defenders and finished.  Bainbridge would get the ball right back and Hayashi almost did it again, but Joey Solazzi made a huge save to keep it 16-13.

With just over two minutes left, Bainbridge had the ball again.  An errant pass seemed headed out-of-bounds, but John Moore made a huge diving play to keep the ball in bounds.  Immediately after the pickup, the ball was fed to Fairbanks on the high crease who ripped his 7^th.

Mercer won the ensuing face-off, but a push call gave the ball right back to Bainbridge.  Fairbanks didn't waste anytime as he fired a quick shot, but Solazzi came up big again turning the shot away.  A scrum would ensue and the ball got pushed back out to the midfield.  Another push call gave the ball back to Bainbridge again.  Nobody matched up on Fairbanks and a quick pass off the restart found him all alone.  Shot…goal, with 37 seconds left!!! 

On the ensuing face-off, Mercer pushed the ball forward, but did not have possession and a Bainbridge defender stepped out of the box giving possession to the Islanders.  Mercer would hand the ball right back to the Spartans though as they failed to keep the ball in the box.   With under 20 seconds left, Bainbridge had one last shot.  Fairbanks got a step on his defender, but this time Mercer brought a quick slide and the ball was knocked loose.

A scrum ensued…the horn sounded….game over…streak over….Mercer Island is the 2001 Washington State Champs!!!!