Needing one win to gain a state tournament berth and extend their season by at least two games, Sequim’s Wolves came up just short.
The Foster Bulldogs got two scores from Jose Esquivel and dominated most of the second half in a 3-1 win in Bonney Lake at the West Central District playoffs on May 12.
Senior midfielder Hayden James had Sequim’s only score.
The loss ends the season for Sequim (11-6), who with a win could have locked up either the No. 3 or No. 6 seed to the class 2A state tourney.
“It was just one of those things where we kind of laid an egg,” Sequim head coach Dave Brasher said. “Everybody was in the kind of same funk.”
The Wolves, who took the No. 2 seed from the Olympic League into the game, looked to have the advantage over their Seamount League foes, Brasher said, in what wound up being a scoreless first half.
“We started real well — we had four good chances in the first 15 minutes,” Brasher said. “We kind of dominated the first half.”
But the Wolfpack attack — from Cameron Chase’s shot that hit the post to Thomas Winfield’s header off a J.T. McElhose cross to Konnor Parrish’s header off a corner kick — all missed their targets.
“Easily it could have been 2-0 right off the bat for us,” Brasher said.
But the Bulldogs (6-7-3) had the answers in the second half. At 47 minutes, Esquivel drove down the right side and lined a screamer past Sequim keeper Austin Wagner for a 1-0 lead.
Six minutes later, Esquivel flicked the ball over SHS defender Christian Benson and off a bounce looped a bender around Wagner for a 2-0 lead.
“That kind of got them going (and) nothing was really working for us,” Brasher said.
Foster made it 3-0 at the 70-minute mark.
Sequim pressed and finally broke through when Winfield’s throw-in found James, who knocked it in for the lone Wolf score.
“They were all kind of apologetic to their teammates,” Brasher said of his team.
Sequim has qualified for the district tourney or play-in game four of the last seasons but fallen short of state each time, with the Wolves’ last state appearance in 2010.
“It was an excellent season, actually,” Brasher said, noting the team’s 1-3 start in league play before finishing 8-4 and tied for second. “They came together well, playing loose and winning. They could have easily o-hummed it through (but we) got some good leadership from seniors. It would have been nice to win one more and get to the (state) tournament.”
The veteran Sequim coach said he expects good things from next year’s squad though they will have to replace Wagner, a four-year starter at keeper.
“I think we’ll be good again next year with a good core of juniors,” he said.
