A dispiriting deficit left the Bainbridge High varsity boys soccer team on the losing side of a shutout match Friday March 23, having been bested 3-0 by the visiting Lakeside Lions.
The loss dropped the island squad’s overall season record to 3-3. They share the fifth-place spot in the Metro standings with West Seattle and Ballard (all 2-2 in league play), while Roosevelt boasts the top spot (6-0 overall).
Against Lakeside, Spartan Head Coach Drew Keller said the Bainbridge boys took the right shots and played well overall, but just couldn’t get things to go their way.
“Unfortunately we’ve had a couple of games like that in a row, where we’ve created a lot of chances and weren’t able to convert them and the other team, given only a few chances, did,” Keller said. “That’s soccer at some level, but there comes a point at which the trend is on us and so we need to make sure we right the ship.”
Lakeside scored the game’s first goal very quickly, just moments in, and Keller said that set an unfortunate tone for the Spartans.
“They got one early,” he said. “We were asleep. There’s not much else I can say about that. We just kind of switched off. We made that way too easy the first time.”
After that, simple exhaustion might have been a contributing factor in Friday’s defeat.
“A huge piece of it is from Friday on we’ve had a game — we had a game Friday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday,” Keller said. “That’s brutal. It’s not necessarily the lack of practice, it’s just so many games full speed.”
That being said, Keller insisted the Spartans were making no excuses.
“That’s the high school season,” he said. “We knew that going coming in; that was not a surprise.”
Not to detract from the visitors’ victory, Keller added. Lakeside earned the V.
“A deserved win for them,” he said. “They took their chances and they stayed organized and that’s more than we can say and I think that’s the difference in the game.”
A “mental reset” was next on the team agenda.
“We created a lot of chances and we just got to start putting them between the posts,” Keller said. “Hopefully, mentally these guys can reset because I think that’s the biggest thing: Being able to move on, take what’s positive from it, leave the rest here. There’s a lot of games left in the season.”
The coach shared several specific shout outs in the wake of Friday’s defeat, saying that despite the score there was much to celebrate on the field that night.
Junior David Nikunen, he said, “has really stepped up as a leader, on and off the field.”
“Keeping guys motivated, calming guys down,” the coach said. “It’s been really great to see him step up; I think there’s a potential future captain there.
“He knows how to play soccer too, which is nice.”
Senior Mario Vukic, the coach said, also had quite a night — but that was nothing new.
“He’s a very skillful player,” Keller said. “He’s the full package. He plays forward for his club team, but he’s too skillful and creative to be left up top for us. That’s why I put him right in the middle and you can see the creativity, both on the ball himself, as well as his distribution.”
The Spartans went on to host Garfield Monday, March 26, and then hit the road for a two-game away series. They will play at home again at 6 p.m. Friday, April 13 against Eastside Catholic.
