The Overlake School-Cedar Park Christian 1A Tri-District soccer playoff semi-finals was played Tuesday night in a torrential downpour at Sammamish High School in Bellevue, and in the end it was the Eagles who got washed away.

The Owls stormed past Cedar Park, 8-0, capping Overlake’s magnificent season with its second-straight berth to the 1A State Tournament in the spring.

“We were actually playing a little short-handed… we were missing two first-team all-leaguers, three starters and some key subs,” said Overlake head coach Bob Bristol. “The guys that filled in for them that don’t normally get a lot of time came in and did a marvelous job.”

On a night where the astroturf pitch resembled a giant slip-and-slide mat, it took a little while for either team to mount an offensive attack.

But when the Owls finally broke through with a goal in the 18th minute — with Jesse Klug scoring his 23rd goal of the season off a pass from midfielder Daniel Ulie’s assist — they never looked back, and even got an assist from Mother Nature.

Overlake’s second goal was scored on a long 40-yard shot by Sky Tweedie-Yates that appeared to be headed straight for Cedar Park goalkeeper Lucas Chadwick, but after leaping up, the slippery ball went right through Chadwick’s hands for a fortunate Owls’ goal.

Then it was senior Hakan Yagiz coming up big with two scores in the next four minutes of play, one a wide-open shot from the right side that the Eagles’ defenders had no answer for.

“They really got fired up, and our feeling is once you get on ’em, you gotta stay on ’em,” Bristol said. “We got that (first goal), and then we got three in four or five minutes. Once we got that going, it was like, ‘We got it, this is what we do to teams.”

The Owls would go on to tally six goals before halftime, adding two more in the second half while an excellent defensive effort allowed only three Cedar Park shots on goal the entire game.

With the win, the Owls will go on to play a seeding game against Seattle Christian on Saturday, with the winner earning the No. 1 seed to state and the loser No. 2, while Cedar Park will advance to a winner-to-state, loser-out game against Seattle Academy on Saturday.

A LONG LAYOFF

If the good news is that Overlake, at 15-0-1, is now into the state tournament, the bad news is that they have to wait half a year to play in the event.

The Owls are playing some of the best soccer in the program’s history right now, but Bristol likens his team’s situation to having to start fresh from day one.

“That’s really what it is, it’s like you’re starting your season over,” he lamented. “You practice, but our guys will all be in other sports. We try to remember how to play, but it’s like our first game of the year.”

Even for a team as dominant as Bristol’s Owls have been, coming into the game’s biggest stage against a district champion playing their 20th game of the season is a tough task.

“For us, we just do the best we can do in the fall,” said Bristol, whose team lost in the state quarterfinals last year to King’s, 3-2. “We treat it like that’s our season, we want to be champions in the fall.”

SENIOR MOMENT

Bristol couldn’t be more proud of his group as a whole, especially of his enormous senior class that have been the backbone of the team.

“It’s definitely been great. Three of them were all-league players and Sky won the MVP, their attitude is just ‘work harder,'” marveled Bristol of his upperclassmen. “Sky’s brother Scout, who doesn’t always get the credit, but he anchors the defense, just seals the back for us. They only got three or four shots on us tonight, and that’s because Scout just covers everything. Guys like (him) and Greg Safadago, they know their job, they’ve done it for a number of years.”

The longtime Owls’ coach also pointed out the efforts of junior Daniel Ulie and sophomores Tyler Reichanadter and Joe Dolack, who combined for four assists against Cedar Park, as players who have stepped up big when starters have been unavailable due to injury or academic suspensions.

“It’s just been a really close-knit team,” said Tweedie-Yates, who was named the Emerald City League’s Most Valuable Player. “Every bus ride we’re always talking, keeping each other up. All the games, we stay positive. During practice, the guys that don’t get much time, play as hard as they can and work on the starters and get us going, and when the starters can’t play they step it up from the sidelines. It’s a whole team, the best team I’ve ever played on.”

For more photos of this match, go to photographer Matt Campbell’s Web site at www.sportspixs.com.