On a warm and mostly clear night in Sammamish, the WHSBLA Quarterfinals kicked off at Eastside Catholic with the Crusaders hosting Mercer Island. Eastside Catholic earned their spot in the game by taking down Eastlake, 8-3, on Tuesday night at home. Their opponents, Mercer Island, traveled to Gig Harbor and came back with a 17-5 win to move on. Coach Chris Long and the defending champion Islanders didn’t get the chance to meet Coach Chuck Goodman and the Crusaders in the regular season, making it hard for either team to know exactly what they were up against. Eastside Catholic accumulated a regular season record of 14-2, while Mercer Island finished the year at 14-5.

The game took off with Mercer Island striking first on an unassisted goal from Johnny van der Velden. Minutes later, Joey Matte put Eastside Catholic on the map by finding the back of the net after a connection from Bryce Atwater, tying up the game. Senior Ian Kelly-Hedrick gave Mercer Island another lead with yet another unassisted goal. Attackman Mitchell Mandt would score the last Islander goal of the quarter right before Chase Bultez found the net on an assist from Atwater to bring the Crusaders within one with a 3-2 Mercer Island lead.

Just 23 seconds into the second quarter, Eastside Catholic senior captain James Wehe worked his way in to tie the game, then immediately steal the lead with another strike just 27 seconds after his first. Minutes would tick by before Mandt would provide the Islanders with another goal, tying the score at 4. At 2:32, Matte would find a connection from Atwater to give Eastside yet another lead. With less than a minute on the clock, Matte then sent the ball into the cage for an unassisted goal, closing the half with the Crusaders up 6-4.

Pumping the brakes on offense, the Crusaders worked back and forth with the Islanders until nearly the 7-minute mark for Wehe earned his hat trick on the team’s 7th goal. Attackman Ryan Grazko would step up next to find the back of the net with help from Wehe, extending Eastside Catholic’s run to 4 goals. Despite a strong effort by the Mercer Island defense, the offensive group was only able to produce one goal when Jonny Osman found Stewart Vassau to cut the deficit to 3. The strike from Vassau stood as the only Mercer Island goal in nearly 18 minutes and would be their last of the frame against senior captain goaltender Josh Matte.

It would be Vassau again working to bring the Islanders back into the game with an unassisted tally at 9:11 mark in the fourth. The Mercer defense, backed by goaltender Ezra Tillinger, did what they could to stay in the game but a fourth goal from Matte would open the flood gates for more Crusader goals. Wehe showed up first to bury his fourth before Atwater would find two of his own, closing the game with Eastside Catholic coming out on top of the defending champions, Mercer Island, 12-6.

The win earns Eastside Catholic the opportunity to move forward and host Issaquah on Wednesday night at 8 p.m, in Sammamish. Issaquah topped Emerald Ridge in the first round before knocking off Kamiak, 12-5, on Friday to earn their place in the the semifinals. Eastside Catholic didn't go head to head with Issaquah in the regular season, making it hard to gauge how they'll match up, The teams last met in the 2015 playoffs with Issaquah coming out on top, 9-3. By Mark Donahue.