SUMNER — The Olympia Bears and the Sumner Spartans squared off on the pitch twice in a nine-day span, one with drastically different stakes than the other, as well as a drastically different result.
Olympia, nine days after losing to Sumner 4-0, returned to Sunset Stadium for a District 3/4 4A quarterfinal and lost to the Spartans 1-0 Saturday night, squandering a chance to clinch a second straight state berth.
A three-goal improvement on the scoreboard might be self-explanatory, but Bears head coach Ty Johnson put it best when talking with his team after the loss.
“Last time, they beat you. This time, they outscored you,” he said.
While the veteran Bears were feeling the fresh sting of their district title hopes being eliminated as that message was delivered by their head coach, the sentiment is true. In the first matchup on April 30, the first two Sumner goals came within five minutes of each other, and the Bears, who were missing some key players, struggled to swing the momentum in their direction.
But in the district opener Saturday, Olympia kept Sumner scoreless for about 68 minutes until Spartans senior Parker Lytle scored off a counter attack.
“In that game nine days ago, I thought we battled, but not the entire game. The score kind of dictated that,” Johnson said. “Whereas tonight, we had plenty of opportunities. Sometimes, you don’t win a game that you think you should. I’m so proud of the boys because they’re exhausted, and they left it all on the field.”
Momentum swung like a tetherball in the first 15 minutes. Sumner secured a corner kick in the second minute, and Olympia countered with a breakaway pass from Jake Murphy to Noel Fernandez that was just a bit too far for Fernandez to track down. In the fourth minute, Sumner’s Gavin Murphy clanked a shot off the top of the goalpost, and Bergen Erikkson also missed a close shot after a throw-in from the corner for the Spartans eight minutes in.
Olympia’s Brett Bartsch and Zach Bowman also took shots in the first 15 minutes, but both were swallowed up by Spartans keeper Caden Gould. Sumner’s Leo Hoyt missed a 22-yard free kick wide left, and an open look from Olympia’s Casey Smith from about 20 yards out was too high.
In a scoreless first half, the Bears defended breakaway passes and prevented easy looks for Sumner, but their own passing wasn’t always efficient.
Olympia’s opportunities outnumbered Sumner’s in the opening moments of the second half, as the Bears earned a corner kick two minutes in and Caleb Laxson nearly snuck a close shot past two defenders eight minutes in.
The Spartans attempted another free kick in the 51st minute, and this time Hoyt missed high from 15 yards. One minute later, Olympia’s sideline nearly erupted as Bartsch had an open look for a split second before his shot was blocked milliseconds after the kick. In the 60th minute, an Oly header banged off the crossbar.
Lytle, who scored one of the Spartans’ four goals against the Bears nine days ago, poked the ball into the back of the net on a counter from the left side.
Olympia had multiple chances to tie the game in the final five minutes, including on shots from Bowman and Pyke Celedonia, but time ran out on the Bears, who now drop to the districts elimination bracket and need to win two games to qualify for state.
“Sumner is a very dynamic team where guys are moving all over the place. Defensively, we played really well. Offensively, we created some great opportunities. We’ve just got to finish them,” Johnson said. “There were a couple balls that went across the mouth of the goal that we didn’t bury and, normally, we would. Even when they got their goal, the boys just didn’t stop. They were in this game the whole time.”
Olympia (11-3-4), the seventh seed in the district bracket, will return to Sunset Stadium Tuesday to face No. 10 seed Kennedy Catholic, which blew out Rogers 7-1 Saturday. Johnson wants to see his squad show up Tuesday with the same effort and ball movement as it showed Saturday against the South Puget Sound League champion Sumner, which is headed to state with the victory over Olympia.
“I think everybody in this league is tough. We’ve been battle tested,” Johnson said. “I would assume [Kennedy Catholic’s] coaches were here tonight, and they’re probably not excited about what they were seeing because we’re a very hard team to beat.”
