The 1A Emerald City League-leading Overlake Owls boys’ soccer team came out firing against Northwest School with a commanding 7-1 win on a blustery Tuesday night at The Overlake School.
With the win, the Owls soared to a 9-0-0 record in league play and 10-0-0 overall.
Five of Overlake’s goals were scored in the first 11 minutes of play, amazingly, by five different players.
“Our guys are ready and anxious to play right from the start,” said Overlake head coach Bob Bristol, adding that scoring an early goal causes the Owls’ opponents to press and make mistakes since Overlake is known as an offensive team. “A majority of our games, we’ve scored a goal in the first five minutes.”
SPREADING THE WEALTH
Just under three minutes into the game, Jesse Klug scored off a Rohan Kumar feed, and in the next minute, Joe Dolack netted a goal, with Sky Tweedie-Yates assisting.
Before a beleaguered Northwest School squad had time to catch its breath, Andrew Cunningham (7th minute), Kumar (8th) and senior Hakan Yagiz (11th) helped extend the Owls’ lead to 5-0 before slowing their offense.
Cunningham, whose first-half goal represented his first score of the year, added two more in the 51st and 57th minutes of the second half for the rare hat trick.
“I don’t know really, it’s hard to say,” replied Cunningham when asked what the secret to the Owls’ success has been. “We have a really good team chemistry, and it’s just our ability to move the ball around and put on offensive pressure.”
Overlake goalkeeper Chap Grubb had a couple first-half saves before a perfectly placed kick by Northwest junior Christophe Job put Northwest on the board at 34-minute mark. John Stolarczuk relieved Grubb and earned a shutout in the second half in goal for the Owls.
“(Everybody’s) scoring,” Bristol said. “Andrew, who got his first goal today, ended up with three. Out of the 20 kids on the team, 13 or 14 have scored goal. Most games we spread it out a lot.”
UPPER CLASS
According to Bristol, his team’s success has come from a wealth of experience and talent coming to fruition.
“This year, because we have 10 seniors, most of them have been playing varsity for three years,” he said. “They’re just finding each other and playing well together.”
Combine those 10 upperclassmen with an athletic group of young kids, and it’s no secret that the Owls are the team to beat in the Emerald City League.
“The (new kids) may not have the physical stature of the seniors, but they definitely have all the skills,” noted Bristol. “We’re as deep as we’ve ever been, at all the positions.”
The Owls will have a true test against two-time defending league champion Seattle Academy (3-2-3 in league, 3-3-3 overall) today.
In their previous meeting this year back on September 17, the Owls snuck by the Cardinals in a 3-2 thriller, when Klug scored the game-winner midway through the second half.
“The last two years, they’ve been the league champs, last year we played them tough, we out-shot them but couldn’t score,” Bristol recalled. “Their defense was tremendous last year.”
Bristol pointed out that the Owls did not have their regular goal keepers last time, instead rotating in center-midfielders, but acknowledges that his players will have to put forth their best effort to notch a win.
“It’ll be a good match, we’re really looking forward to it. The kids are excited to say, ‘Hey, that first one shouldn’t have been that close.’ But they gotta do that on the field.”
Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. on Overlake’s turf field.
