Boys Soccer: WesCo's 'Big Three' Looking to Make State Impact

The power of boys soccer in the WesCo conference has been no secret over the last six years. Three times since 2005 a WesCo team has ended the year as the state champion, including the last two, and only once in that time has a WesCo team not made at least the quarterfinals.

But 2011 may feature the deepest WesCo league in recent memory, with three teams, whose only competition is seemingly one another, to make noise in the state tournament. Usual powers Glacier Peak and Shorecrest have been joined by upstart Shorewood to form a trifecta of powerful teams. The WesCo conference combines with the Northwest League for the district playoffs and three teams will advance to the state tournament, all three of which may easily be the top-3 teams in WesCo. Patch takes a look at each team and their strengths.

Glacier Peak

The defending state champs have not missed a beat in 2011, starting the season 15-0 before falling to Shorecrest earlier this week. The Grizzlies are paced by a strong midfield that controls the ball in the middle third and a defense anchored by star goalkeeper Andrew Weakley.

Perhaps Glacier Peak's biggest problem in 2011 has been maintaining a high level of play against lesser opponents.

"As good as the season's been, it's been a difficult one from the standpoint of finding challenges for the boys," Glacier Peak head coach Shannon Murray said.

But the Grizzlies got a recent reminder of how easily a game can go wrong for them. Glacier Peak entered its second game against rival Shorecrest without a sense of energy and was beaten from the first whistle. After allowing just nine goals total in their first 16 games, the Grizzlies gave up 3 in 80 minutes to the Scots.

"The Shorecrest game was a good one, because I think it woke us up," Murray said.

Glacier Peak rebounded against Shorewood in the regular season finale with a 2-0 victory to take the WesCo title by a point over Shorecrest and is still the team to beat in the 3A division.

Shorecrest

The Scots started the year ranked in the top-10 nationally before an early league loss to Glacier Peak knocked them out of the national title race. But Shorecrest rebounded to finish the season with eight straight wins, outscoring opponents 35-2 over that stretch.

Shorecrest has perhaps the biggest star in the packed WesCo conference in midfielder Glenn Paden. Paden finished the regular season with 20 goals and 14 assists, including a goal and two assists in the 3-0 win over Glacier Peak.

The Scots are paced by their potent offense, which has scored four or more goals in a game 10 times in 2011, including six or more six times. Shorecrest has been plagued at times by an inability to finish around the goal, most recently in a shootout-win over Shorewood in which the Scots missed on four opportunities from 10 yards or closer during regulation.

Shorecrest stumbled in the state tournament in 2010 after an undefeated season, but the 2009 champs have enough talent to take it again in 2011.

Shorewood

When new Shorewood head coach Nathan Davis predicted that his team would win 13 games before the season began, it sounded a lot like a case of head coach hubris. The Thunderbirds were coming off a seven-win campaign in 2010 and were moving down into the powerful 3A WesCo conference.

Shorewood has fallen short of the 13-win prediction, but is 10-5 on the year, with four of those losses coming to Shorecrest and Glacier Peak, three of them in shootout losses.

The breakout star for the T-Birds has been goalkeeper Simon Aspinall. Aspinall isnot as well known as Glacier Peak's Weakley, but his play has enabled Shorewood to stay in close games.

"Simon is hands down the best goalie who's ever come through this school," Davis said. "Simon is amazing."

Tanner Jones anchors an offensive attack that has no less than four legitimate goal scorers and has scored 54 goals on the season including 10 from leading score Sahil Khan. Six different T-Birds players have scored at least five goals on the year.

Shorewood is the upstart out of the trio, but has shown that it can hang with the top-two teams in the state. If the T-Birds relative lack of playoff experience does not hinder them, Shorewood has as good a chance as any to end up in the top-8 of the state.

"In reality, if we get three teams into the state tournament, I'm willing to bet it will be Glacier Peak, Shorecrest and us," Davis said. 

Shorewood opens the playoffs on May 7th against Ferndale at 5 pm at Shoreline Stadium.

Shorecrest opens against Meadowdale on May 7th at 7p.m. at Shoreline Stadium.

Glacier Peak will play Lynnwood in the first-round at 1 pm at Glacier Peak on May 7th.