The Federal Way Eagles just didn’t have enough offense last weekend at the Class 4A Boys Soccer State Tournament’s Final Four at Harry Lang Stadium in Lakewood.
The Eagles (12-7-3) lost back-to-back 2-0 games Friday and Saturday to finish as the fourth-place team in the state of Washington, which isn’t too shabby for a team that had to win five of their last six games to snare fourth place in the nine-team South Puget Sound League North Division.
Lake Stevens downed Federal Way, 2-0, Friday night in the state semifinals and Ferris followed Saturday afternoon with their own 2-0 win over the Eagles. Stadium eventually beat Lake Stevens in the state title game Saturday to claim their first championship.
“I told them to keep their heads high,” Federal Way head coach Jason Baumgardt said. “They came out and fought hard. They can’t hang their heads.”
The Eagles, however, were playing without the services of their most lethal weapon, Kelyn Rowe. The senior who is headed to UCLA, flew out to Florida with his club team, Crossfire Premier, for a national-level showcase over the weekend. Rowe was in Florida in an attempt to turn some heads of the coaching staff of the United States National Team, according to Baumgardt.
“That has been his goal for a long time,” he said. “He wants to play on the National Team.”
Rowe, the state player of the year, had all five goals during the Eagles’ 5-1 quarterfinal victory over Beamer last weekend.
In total, Rowe scored 32 of the Eagles’ 49 goals this season and had an eye-popping 25 goals in Federal Way’s last 10 games. Rowe also scored nine of the Eagles’ 11 goals during their four-game postseason winning streak that ended with Friday’s loss to Lake Stevens.
“He is the best player in the state,” said Baumgardt. “But it is what it is.”
Baumgardt and the rest of the Eagles were aware that Rowe wouldn’t be available if Federal Way were to make it to the state semifinals. Rowe informed them before the season started that he would make the trek to Florida, no matter what.
“In all honesty, nobody thought we would come this far,” Baumgardt said. “But everybody on the team knew he wouldn’t be here. He would have had a field day against their back line. They couldn’t have stopped him.”
Lake Stevens got on the scoreboard 19 minutes into the game on a goal from John Gleason. Gleason knocked in a rebound after the ball bounced away from Federal Way goalkeeper Eddie Gomez.
The when Nick Bylin converted a long throw in from the left sideline in the 58th minute to put the game out of reach at 2-0.
Federal Way did have a couple solid scoring opportunities during the first half against Lake Stevens. But the Vikings clamped down on the Eagles during the second half.
Saturday’s game against the Ferris Saxons went pretty much the same as Federal Way’s loss Friday night.
The two teams played a scoreless first half in the third-fourth game at Harry Lang Stadium. But the Saxons exploded for a pair of goals during an eight-minute stretch in the second half. Alec Cutter got Ferris on the board in the 56th minute and Josh Sharon took a pass from Cutter to give the Saxons a 2-0 lead in the 64th minute.
The Eagles couldn’t get anything by Ferris goalkeeper Nick Stebbins, who picked up the shutout.
