The Wolverines pounded on a near impenetrable Falcon defense in a 7-5 victory Tuesday night at Woodinville High School.

Bellevue midfielders accounted for 6 of 7 goals for the night as Woodinville refused to give their attackmen any room to breathe. Senior midfielder Justin Angelel, senior midfielder Carson Lombardi and junior midfielder Joseph Albrecht all had 2 goals a piece in their win against the Falcons.

The Wolverines won this game with face-offs, snagging 11 of 14, giving them the clear possession advantage over the Falcons. This is the only stat they dominated their opponent in, as it greatly helped maintain their lead throughout the night.

Woodinville’s senior goalie Matthew Corbin was white-hot making 13 saves out of 20 shots giving him a nice 65% save percentage. This is much better than the last time he faced them, with 8 of 20 saved shots and a 36% save percentage. Tonight became the first time the Falcons held the Wolverines to under 10 points, since they were moved to Division I in 2012.

The game’s low score can be attributed to how well both of these defenses cleared the ball all night. Bellevue cleared 16 of 23 attempts (70%), while Woodinville cleared 15 of 20 (75%), making it difficult for any offense to maintain possession. Here’s a breakdown of the game as it played out.

It was partly cloudy on a chilly night in Woodinville when both teams took the field. The defensive showdown was off to a strong start as both teams struggled to score ending the first quarter 2-1 with Bellevue on top.

The second quarter was a success for the Wolverines as they shut out their opponent and increased their lead by another 2 goals to end the half at 4-1. A three-goal disparity was all they needed to win as the Falcons were never able to hold a lead in this heated rivalry game.

Woodinville won the third quarter with two critical goals in the first six minutes and a thrilling end-of-quarter buzzer beater making it a 5-4 game going into the fourth. The Falcons found themselves with an honest chance to beat their conference rivals for the first time in a game of suspense.

Bellevue was not willing to lose their first game of the season as they held onto their lead with two more goals in the final quarter driving the final nail in the coffin. The Falcons junior attackman Zachary Barnett found the Wolverines goalie out of a position for his team’s final score of the night as they watched their winning opportunity slip away in an eventual 7-5 defeat.

“The game plan was about us. It was about us trying to execute early in the season. We weren’t really looking at them, as much as we were looking at us.” Commented Bellevue head coach John Baumann. “We cleared the ball well, we rode the ball well. I think our offense could click a little bit more, I’d like to score more goals with the firepower that I think we have.”

Bellevue has scored less than 10 points only four times in their past 26 games including playoffs and last year’s games in New York. This speaks volumes in the kind of offense they bring to every game and the challenges they met last night against Woodinville’s defense.

The Wolverines move to 3-0 as they prepare to host the Eastlake Wolves (1-1) on Thursday night at 8:00pm. The Falcons move to 1-1, as they will prepare to face a tough Skyline team (2-1) who just handily defeated Mercer Island last night 13-5.

Story by Michael Thornbloom