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Usually when you go visit an old friend, you don’t expect to walk away beat up afterward. But that’s just what happened to the Mountlake Terrace Hawks after a Saturday afternoon gathering with a former coach.
After a few bloody noses and skinned knees, and a roster full of bruised egos, the Hawks left Bishop Blanchet High School Saturday with a 5-1 loss to the Coach George Dremousis-led Bears on Saturday.
Dremousis, who had previously coached numerous seasons of Terrace girls’ and boys’ soccer — sometimes both simultaneously over a 30-year span — is now in his fourth season leading a Bishop Blanchet boys soccer program quickly rising to be a power in Seattle’s 2A/3A/4A Metro League.
Dremousis and his Bears showed how good they can be in a dominant outing against the Hawks.
“We wanted everyone to play at least 25, 30 minutes, which we did,” Dremousis said of his pre-game plan to make sure each player on his Blanchet roster saw some action on Saturday. “We’re pretty well balanced. There’s not a noticeable dropoff between our first and second units, so everyone can play pretty well.”
Leading the Bears on Saturday was senior Lucas Marx with a pair of goals. Senior Jackson Farrell, who has committed to playing at Gonzaga this fall, had two assists in the match while junior Max Ames picked up a goal and an assist.
Senior Joe Maher rounded out the Blanchet scoring with a goal.
Andrew Seyler scored the only goal in the match for the Hawks. The senior finished a run down the left side of the Bears’ defense with a low shot that slipped under Blanchet goalkeeper Tom Lacy in the 72nd minute.
Seyler’s goal came less than 15 minutes after the left wing was forced to leave the pitch for a few minutes to get cleaned up after bloodying his face in a fall on the artificial turf at the Bishop Blanchet High School field.
Terrace Coach Chris Mitalas had Seyler playing up on the front line in the game’s second half even though the senior is listed as a defender on the team roster.
“This kid; I can’t pinpoint an exact spot for him,” Mitalas said of Seyler. “I think I may have just found a new position for him. Great kid. Senior; been with me since he was a freshman. Well-deserved goal.”
Mitalas, now in his fourth season at the helm of Terrace boys’ soccer, knew before the start of Saturday’s matchup that the day would be a challenging one for his Hawks.
“We came in with a game plan against what we would consider a better team than us. We all admitted that,” Mitalas said. “But we thought if we stayed disciplined that we may be able to walk out of here with a result.”
Terrace took a defensive stance from the opening kickoff, playing a 4-4-1 formation that kept everyone on the goal-side of the ball and forcing the Bears into a slow, calculated build into Hawks’ territory. Blanchet was able to break through and fire off 14 shots in the first half, but just one — a Maher header in the 32nd minute — got past Terrace goalkeeper Owen Haverland.
Down 1-0 at halftime, Mitalas sent his squad into second half play with more players committed to an offensive push. “Once that first goal went in, you have to start pushing a little bit,” he explained. “(Then) the flood gates opened up.”
Blanchet scored three goals during a seven-minute span early in the second half and the Bears (2-0-0 in the 2A/3A/4A Metro League, 3-0-0 overall) were well on their way to their third win of the season.
Terrace, now 0-2-0 this year, will open the Wesco League portion of their season with a match against Meadowdale on Tuesday, March 17. Mitalas and the Hawks were quickly ready to put Saturday’s loss behind them as they left Bishop Blanchet.
“Second game of the season, there’s still 14 more games to go; this was our last preseason game,” Mitalas said. “The boys know what the expectations are in our tough Wesco South division.”
“We’re turning that page and looking forward to our game against Meadowdale on Tuesday,” Mitalas said.
Dremousis has colored his Blanchet boys soccer program with a little bit of Hawk red and black as three Terrace alum serve as assistant coaches for him: Oscar Arevalo, Ivan Melchor and Kosta Charouhas. Dremousis would also love to continue the early season matchups between his Bears and Mountlake Terrace teams — Saturday’s match was the third between the two squads over the past three years — into upcoming seasons.
“I’d like to; it’s good,” Dremousis said. “I don’t know if Chris wants to do that. I enjoy it.”
Prep Boys Soccer: Mountlake Terrace at Bishop Blanchet, Mar. 14
Mountlake Terrace 0 1 – 1
Bishop Blanchet 1 4 – 5
Goal scorers:
– Joe Maher (Bishop Blanchet), assisted by Max Ames, in the 32nd minute
– Max Ames (Bishop Blanchet), assisted by Jackson Farrell, in the 50th minute
– Roshan Russnak (Bishop Blanchet), unassisted, in the 53rd minute
– Lucas Marx (Bishop Blanchet), assisted by Jackson Farrell, in the 57th minute
– Andrew Seyler (Mountlake Terrace), unassisted, in the 72nd minute
– Lucas Marx (Bishop Blanchet), unassisted, in the 76th minute
Saves:
– Owen Haverland (Mountlake Terrace), 9
– Tom Lacy (Bishop Blanchet), 2
– Ashton Mazza (Bishop Blanchet), 0
Corner kicks:
– Mountlake Terrace, 1
– Bishop Blanchet, 8
Yellow cards:
– Charles Bode (Mountlake Terrace), in the 24th minute
– Ali Reza Qurbani (Mountlake Terrace), in the 36th minute
– Jackson Ferrell (Bishop Blanchet), in the 50th minute
Records: Mountlake Terrace 0-0-0 in 2A/3A Wesco League South Conference, 0-2-0 overall; Bishop Blanchet 2-0-0 in 2A/3A/4A Metro League, 3-0-0 overall
Mountlake Terrace next match: versus Meadowdale; Tuesday, March 17; 7:30 p.m. at Edmonds Stadium
Bishop Blanchet next match: versus Nathan Hale; Tuesday, March 17; 4:30 p.m. at Jane Addams Middle School
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