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D2 Quarter Finals - Northshore Shuts Out Overlake
Submitted by walax on Sat, 2007-05-12 22:13.
Today Northshore and Overlake battle at Bothell High School in a 4th seed versus 5th seed match up. An interesting side note, as the game begins there appears to be five or six Overlake players on the sidelines in street clothes.
Overlake sends out eleven players to the pre-game line up, and realizes that someone needs to run off. This event is an unfortunate foreshadowing of how the game would play out for the Owls—mistakes and missed opportunities.
Colin Enderlein wins the draw on the first face-off, but when he pushed the ball back its is scooped up by a sweeping Northshore long stick and moved to their go to freshman middie, Taylor Wisman. The Northshore offense gets some quick ball movement until the ball moves back to Wisman as he fires a high to low lefty shot for the goal. Within the first minute of regulation Northshore is on the board 1-0.
Early in the game Northshore appears to be having its way with the Owls who are clearly on the ropes. They are getting good looks from good dodges, as the sophomore attackman Bowen Hadley coldly breaks his defenseman’s ankles but cannot get the shot to fall. In addition to the strong offensive effort, Northshore’s goalie Stuart Dransfield is making some tough saves and playing an all around good game.
Still in the beginning of the first quarter Brian Safstrom chimes in as he sticks the shots on a sweep to give Northshore the two to nothing advantage. Soon after, Safstrom dodges and hits Hadley sitting on the crease for an easy dunk over the Overlake keeper. At this point Northshore is up 3-0 and the Overlake coach calls a timeout to get his team reorganized.
The timeout seems to have settled the Overlake players, as Enderlein wins the face and establishes possession for Overlake. The Owls work it around, but cannot find any rhythm as they lose the ball and it goes back down to Northshore. They waste no time as Tyler McManigal scores his first goal of the day unassisted and puts his team up 4-0.
Overlake wins the face and pushes downfield hard in the waning seconds of the first quarter, but defensemen Willy Simpson strips his man and Northshore is content to run the clock out. At the end of one it is 4-0 Northshore.
At the start of the second, Northshore wins the face and gets it around the horn to Wisman for a dodge from up top. He beats his man, but realizes he doesn’t have a lefty shot, so he rolls around and does his best Gary Gait impression ripping a nice one handed righty shot. The shake and bake move from Wisman puts his team up 5-0.
Soon after the Wisman goal, Hadley dodges to score unassisted and puts Northshore up 6-0. The Northshore barrage doesn’t let up on the reeling Owls, as Safstrom scores again off of a Jake Dossett feed. McManigal rips his shot for his second goal of the game, and puts Overlake into a hole it looks like it will not get out of. A Dossett dish to Safstrom from ‘X’ gives Safstrom an opportunity and he does not disappoint, as he completes the hat trick in his first playoff appearance, and Northshore is now up 10-0.
Overlake appears to get some relief when the halftime bell rings. They must have a major change of heart to try and make this a game.
The two teams start the second half, but Overlake cannot catch a break as Northshore longstick-middie Matt Maas scoops up the face-off and moves it to the offense. The composure and poise that Northshore has shown is beginning to break down, as there are many turnovers and poor passes. However, Hadly’s shot still seems to be in rhythm as he blasts a high-to-high tally from ten yards out.
Northshore is now up 11-0, and begins to put in their back up players from some experience. Overlake is getting many opportunities to score, but is suffering from poor shot selection as Dransfield and his back up Charlie Peterson are stuffing anything that ventures inside their crease. Peterson also decides to race the length of the field and looks to hit an open attackman, but unfortunately send it over his head.
Wisman adds another tally to his point total today as he assists Jacob Field for the easy score. In the expiring minutes of the fourth quarter Wisman sticks his final goal in a nifty hockey shot unassisted, and to close scoring for the day Scott Barclay hits McManigal for the right handed finish.
In an inspired effort by the young Northshore team, they complete the 13-0 shut out of the Overlake Owls in the first round of the WHSBLA Division II playoffs. Overlake goes home until next spring, and Northshore advances to play Tacoma next Wednesday the 16th.
Points
Northshore:
Wisman 2g 1a, Safstrom 3g 1a, McManigal 3g, Hadley 3g, Field 2g, Dossett 2a, Barclay 1a, Langdon 1a
By Mason Smith
overlake team
as you mentioned, this was not the same overlake team that played all season as a huge number of players were suspended. tough way to go out for the seniors who had to watch and not play, congrats guys on a great year.
You are correct
Overlake did look a little out of it with their players benched, but Northshore played a solid game.