Yellow Pages
MOUNT VERNON — Conference champions are supposed to get easy first-round soccer playoff games.
They are supposed to win by four or five goals.
But the Mount Vernon girls’ soccer team had its hands full Saturday when it got past Shorecrest 2-1 in a first-round Northwest 3A District Tournament match at Bulldog Stadium.
“We’re still a real young team,” said Mount Vernon’s Tia Brogna, the only senior on the team. “For a few of them it was their first district game and they hadn’t played against a WesCo team. This is how (Western Conference teams) play. They play and play until the end.”
Mount Vernon, 16-1 and the sixth-ranked Class 3A team in the Seattle Times poll, will host Glacier Peak at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in a second-round match.
The Bulldogs, who shared the Northwest Conference title and were the conference’s top 3A team, looked like obvious favorites against a Shorecrest team that was 7-7-2 and had lost three of four going into the playoffs.
But looks can be deceiving.
“This was a sleeping giant,” said Mount Vernon coach Gary Warman. “They just had some bad luck in shootouts. Without that they would have been a No. 2 or No. 3 seed (from the WesCo).”
Shorecrest was physical, sending Mount Vernon players flying when they bumped in the air.
Warman, who had scouted the Scots, had hoped the officials would take some of the physical play out of the match. But only one yellow card was handed out.
“To be honest, (the referee) let it go,” said Warman.
Still, Mount Vernon scored twice in the first half to get some momentum.
Brogna scored 15 minutes into the match, then teammate Ashley Morrison added a penalty kick off a handball in the 37th minute.
