Less than two weeks remain in the regular season.  Seahawks stadium awaits two teams from each league. Unless there are any major upsets in the last two weeks of play, 1st place is all but decided.  Can anyone challenge the Panthers in the A league or Bellevue in the B league?  If not, who looks to be second best?  The answers are rapidly approaching.  Here's what happened in week 6.

 

SCOREBOARD

 

A League                                                      B League

Forest Ridge 9 Mercer Island B 4                   Kitsap 16 Curtis 6

Lakeside 17 Forest Ridge 7                            Mercer Island B 7 Snohomish 3

Mercer Island 15 Overlake 3                          Greenwood 8 Kitsap 7

Bainbridge Island 13 Overlake 3                     Curtis 12 Eastside 10

                                                                       Greenwood 1 Eastside 0 (forfeit)

                                                                       Kitsap 18 Mercer Island B 6

                                                                       Bellevue? Eastside?

 

A League Recaps

 

This week saw no changes in the Overall league lead.  The Panthers are well in controll of the A league being still undefeated.  The battle seems to be for who will face them for the state title and that battle is anything but settled.  Forest Ridge, Bainbridge, and Lakeside have all been in a season long rotation for that second place spot.  Bainbridge Island and Lakeside each took a win against the other in their meetings this year.  Forest Ridge Previously beat Bainbridge Island and faces them at home later this week.  And last week saw Forest Ridge suffer it's second loss to the Lions.  Don't worry Mercer Island, I haven't forgotten you!!!  A major story of the week is Mercer Islands first win of the season, and their first win in two years. 

Against Forest Ridge this week, Mercer Island was beat by a score of 9 to 4.  Jackie Spencer scored 4 along with 4 goals by teammate Leslie Walker.  Freshman Erika Spencer scored on an assist by freshman Lauren Borucki.  Forest Ridge got big defensive contributions from Brooklyn Lewis and Christine Jones.  Freshman goalie Jamie Obrien came through with 11 saves and an impressive save ration of 73%.  For Mercer Island it was Dani Zorn leading with 2 goals, with help from teammates Sara Utzshneider and Tara Mctavish each with one.  Mercer Island was very impressive on the ground balls racking up 24 as a team.

 

The Islanders faced Overlake later in the week and saw an opportunity.  While Overlake has been struggling, Mercer Island has been motivated.  Even though their team has struggled in the win category, they have not struggled with their spirit and determination.  This, and their continued improvement this season, paid off.  The Islanders came away with a win, and it was a big one.  With a final score of 15 to 6, the flood gates were opened and every one wanted a piece of the action.  6 different Mercer Island players scored on the day.  McTavish, Zorn, and Utzschneider each had 3 goals.  Carrie Philbrick and Kellie Hern each had 2 with Kelly Elston rounding out the scoring with one goal.  Goalie Kelly Nakata saved an impressive 11 shots of 17 for a save ratio of 65%.  Overlake's freshman center Anna de Regt did every thing she could scoring 3 goals.  de Regt is a player of the future for sure showing the speed craftiness and determination of a veteran.  She was assisted in the Overlake scoring by Alex Phillips with 2 and Laura Uhlmansiek with 1. 

 

In their previous meeting Forest Ridge kept it really close to Lakeside losing by only 2 points.  Lakeside did not leave anything to chance this time.  Forest Ridge found themselves down quickly to the Lions but were able to come back to with in 2 by half.  The second half, however, was all Lakeside.  Mallory Lobisser came away with 8 goals on the day and while she did not have any assists, she consistently controlled the draw finding Liz Morbeck almost every time.  Morbeck had 3 goals on the day and continued to add to her assist totals with four on the day.  She now leads the league in assists with 25.  Having her best game of the year thus far, Senior Sara Axelrod came up big for the Lions.  Playing at attack wing, the lefty Axelrod scored 3 goals and matched that with 3 assists.  Jackie Spencer scored 5 of the teams 7 goals for Forest Ridge.

 

Rounding out the play this week was Bainbridge Island controlling this and getting the win over Overlake.  Once again it was Jen Utley as the High scorer for the Vikings.  Whitney Hume also had a big game against the Owls with 3 goals and an assist.  Maggie Pettit had 2 goals on the day along with Colby Brauner and Sayuri Hayashi who each had one.  Goalie Dimitri Lotakis saved 9 of 12 shots to earn herself a 75% save rate which was the highest of the week.  Bainbridge is currently tied with the Panthers for 1st place. 

 

Upcoming games of note

 

The Panthers host Bainbridge Island on Tuesday.

 

On friday 5/2 Bainbridge Island hosts Forest Ridge.  Forest Ridge won the last meeting by 1 goal which came with under a second remaining.

 

B league recaps

 

Bellevue is still in 1st place.  They currently share the league lead with Greenwood.

 

Kitsap was dominant this week in their two meetings this week.  Taking on Curtis at home, they were able to control play and came out on top with a score of 16 to 6.  The high roller for Kitsap, and the teams current leader in scoring, was Krista Burleson scoring 4 and assisting with 2.  Bonnie Cordoza scored 3 and assisted with one.  Leading the team in assists, and also on the day was Amanda Divyak.  Divyak had 4 assists and 3 goals.  Scoring 5 of Curtis' 6 goals was Katie Galligan.

 

Against Mercer Island B Burleson was again the high scorer with 8 of the teams 18 goals.  Cordoza had 3 along with Megan Lockert who also had 3.  Divyak and Krista Peterson both rounded out the scoring with 3 goals.  With the season nearing the end, Kitsap looks to be comfortable in it's 3rd place position in the league.

 

Mercer Island was the winner against Snohomish this week.  Coach Criag Van Der Horn was happy with his teams performance as his girls succesfully "took it to the hole" scoring 7 goals on the day.  Five Islanders were able to score on the day.  Laurel Benz, Anna Hisken, Carolyn Peterson, and Annie Taylor all had one goal.  Kelly Mesher was able to find the net twice.  Mercer Island is currently in a 3 way tie for 4th place in the B league.  While Snohomish is a young and inexperienced team, the have speed and as they gain experience will be a team to be reconed with. 

 

Bellevue beat Eastside by a score of 17 to 10.  Eastside came out strong in the first half with strong play in the goal.  Bellevue, however, was able to pull away in the second half.  Chelsea Smith scored 5 goals on the night, 4 of which came in the second half.  Emily Shubin assisted with 3 goals.  Becca Miller had 9 saves of 19 in goal.

 

Up coming Match-ups of note

 

Third place Kitsap takes on 1st place Bellevue

 

Fourth place Mercer Island B takes on 3rd place Kitsap