Varsity - BHS vs Mercer Island 11-1-25

Bellevue 3-0 MI
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19th min 1-0 Raina (Ava)
41st min 2-0 Saleen (Raina)
50th min 3-0 Saleen PK

For the entire previous week, ever since our game was rescheduled to Saturday night and our opponent was determined, I've been glued to my weather app. Is talking about the weather the most boring topic of conversation imaginable? Tax policy, family vacation photo sharing with friends, and crypto meme-coin enthusiasts might have a case, but all week I was focused on Saturday night weather forecasts. MI is a scrappy, physical team that would thrive in rainy, soaked, and gusty conditions, potentially neutralizing our possession advantages. And all week it looked bad for Saturday. Worse than that. Atmospheric-river-bad. Flood warnings. High-wind advisories. Trees falling down. It reminded me of the esteemed Dr. Peter Venkman explaining the seriousness of the ghost problem in NYC..."The city is headed for a disaster of Biblical proportions...cats and dogs living together. Mass hysteria!!!" (Happy belated Halloween to fans of the original Ghostbusters). But then...just hours before our kick-off, the winds died. The deluge spigot from earlier in the day was abruptly turned off. The sun emerged from behind gray clouds. Actual warmth. And as we kicked off, a beautiful sunset. Amazing.

And for the opening phases of the game we played like the weather. Calm. Beautiful. We were patient in our passing, generous with the ball, not taking too many touches and rotating our possession until we found simple openings down the wings. We created lots of chances, but most shots were either directly at the MI goalkeeper, or wide of the mark. We finally broke the deadlock in the 19th minute, covering the full field in three passes. First was a goal kick tap square pass to Maggie, then a simple 25 yard ball on the ground to a checking Ava in midfield, one touch to turn, and the second touch launched 40 yards over the defense to a wide-open Raina...Raina's first touch was perfect, inside towards goal and her finish was even better, as our #10 roofed it from an acute angle to the far upper corner. Sublime finish, sublime assist. 1-0 Bellevue. 

And we were flying...or so I thought. But maybe we soared too close to the setting sun, because our wax wings began to melt after our goal and we had a mediocre last twenty minutes of the first half. Herky jerky. Unpressured give-aways. A rough patch and we fell to earth, and were fortunate to not give up an equalizer. However, we re-grouped at halftime, talked it out, agreed to lock-in collectively, play more like a golden sunset, and less like a dark gloomy night. 

And so we did. Within two minutes, Nora won the ball at midfield with one of her trademark sliding tackle toe-nail pokes to send the ball into MI's defensive third...where Saleen and Raina pounced and counter-pressed, forcing the MI left back into a give-away, the ball rebounded from Raina to Saleen who was free in the box with just the keeper to beat. We know how this scene ends. Calm finish. 2-0 Bellevue. A great team gritty goal. A playoff goal. A goal of will and toughness, that originated in a committed tackle at midfield. When the weather turns in November, these types of goals are often the difference.   

In the 50th minute, we effectively put the game out-of-reach, as Raina chased down the ball on the right wing and burst into the box before cutting the ball back to a trailing Ava to fire on goal... directly onto the outflung hand of the MI defender. Clear handball by rule (arm was well away from her body and in the air), even if not intentional. Regardless of the constantly changing handball rules, we won't quibble. Saleen stepped up to the PK spot, took responsibility, and finished smartly. 3-0 Bellevue.

The goal margin enabled us to rotate the roster and give several players their first taste of playoff and/or varsity soccer. But not everyone. We have a roster of 23 players for our playoff run, and as I have discussed with the team, it won't always be possible to get everyone playing time during playoffs. It's a journey we want to share as widely as possible within our program, but some roster roles will be more limited and that takes an attitudinal shift to keep positive, and ready, to help the team in whatever way is required. I was proud of how our entire group of "12s" supported the action on the field from our shelter, or took their opportunities when called upon. 

Our victory has earned us a spot in the 3A Kingco Championship Final on Tuesday, Nov 4th at 7pm at Bellevue Stadium against Inglemoor. The winner of the Final will earn a berth in the State tournament, while the loser will play again on Saturday, Nov 8th against the winner of Liberty and Mercer Island (also on Nov 4th) for the last State spot available from Kingco. Playing in any game with a trophy at stake is rare at any level. It's special. We have that opportunity on Tuesday against an Inglemoor team that is peaking at the right time in their season. We'll be ready. "...If you have one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment would you capture it or just let it slip..."  Mom's spaghetti but calm and ready.        

Finally, we had our annual Halloween practice session on Friday (in the atmospheric river)...for me, this is the best of high school soccer: joyful, silly, fun.

As always, thank you for the support against Mercer Island. See you on Tuesday.