The Islander boys soccer team repeated a third-place state finish this season, beating Franklin Pierce of Tacoma on Saturday afternoon in a shootout. The day before, in the semifinals, the team fell for the first time this season to No. 2 Shorecrest, which the Islanders took down last season during the quarterfinals.

On Friday afternoon, the Islanders were hot off the draw with senior Diego Corvalan striking the net 50 seconds into the game. From there on out, Mercer Island struggled to regain that momentum as Shorecrest battled aggressively for a spot in the state finals. With 17:58 left in the first half, the Scots of Shorecrest finally burst through the Islanders’ defense to tie the game, 1-1. With four minutes left in the first half, Jed Jacobson was issued a yellow card, giving Shorecrest a free kick at the 25-yard line, which Michael Harris turned into a goal for the Scots, taking the score to 2-1 at the half.

The second 40 minutes of play passed with aggressive battles between both sides, but Mercer Island was never quite able to capitalize on chances to score.

“We gave up too many ugly goals,” said coach Steve Newman, following the match. “They outplayed us, and we didn’t create enough chances.” He said the team had expected the level of physical toughness they found against Shorecrest, especially after knocking the team out of the tournament last season.

“We didn’t control the game in the second half like we wanted,” he said.

The following day, the Islanders took to the field again, taking on Franklin Pierce. The first half of the game, both teams waged a campaign for the goal, never quite getting far enough to score. At the end of the first, the score was tied 0-0. Halfway through the second half, Mercer Island’s chance finally came, with Alex Wood, a freshman midfielder, knocking the ball in after a corner kick. Franklin Pierce’s James Hoag answered 10 minutes later with a goal for the Cardinals to tie the game, where the score sat until the end of regulation.

Neither team scored during the two five-minute ‘golden goal’ periods, which sent the game into a shootout. Islander goalie Forrest Marowitz came up big for the team, blocking three out of the five shots by Franklin Pierce to give Mercer Island the victory. Jed Jacobson and Tyler Ybarra scored the shootout goals for Mercer Island.

Marowitz said following the game that he didn’t like the way the ball had slipped by him for the Cardinal goal, and used it as motivation going into the shootout.

“We should have beat them by a lot instead of a little,” he said. Teammate Chris Morris echoed those thoughts, but said the team talked prior to the game about focusing on having fun, especially as it was the senior’s last match.

“We just wanted to go out there and have fun,” said Morris.

Newman said he credited Marowitz with the win on Saturday, keeping the shootout situation strongly in the Islanders control.

“Thank God for Forest coming out big,” said Newman.

On the season, as a whole, the coach said he was proud of the team, especially because pressure can really build after going undefeated during the regular season.