After leading their conference in scoring during the regular season, a scoring drought couldn’t have befallen the Mercer Island girls soccer team at a worse time.
Mercer Island had suffered back-to-back 1-0 losses to Bellevue, and heading into halftime scoreless with Lake Washington during their KingCo tournament lose-out game, the Islanders found themselves amidst their 200th minute of scoreless play.
“We just came in from the half and we were frustrated,” Islander forward Camryn Steiner said. “We had dominated that first half and we knew we wanted it. We knew we were pushing hard and we knew it was coming. We just really wanted to get it in the back of the net.”
Mercer Island kept pushing, and would soon find paydirt.
Behind second-half goals from Steiner and Jackie Stenberg, the Islanders broke their two-game scoring drought to beat Lake Washington 2-0 Wednesday night at Islander Stadium. With the win, Mercer Island advanced to Saturday’s Metro crossover with a state tournament berth at stake.
Steiner found the back of the net in the 42nd minute off a right-side feed from Kate Miller, putting her team in control and helping keep their postseason hopes alive.
“They knew it was coming, they could feel it,” Mercer Island coach Ryan Camden said. “We told them that all it’s going to take is one little spark. That first one came and you saw the entire team come alive.”
Mercer Island looked anxious to break its scoring drought from the outset, attacking early and firing nine shots on goal in the first half. The Islanders saw a goal from Namya Malik waved off in the ninth minute, with Malik being whistled for offsides.
Mercer Island registered another 14 shots in the second half, with Steiner putting the team ahead two minutes after the break. Jackie Stenberg added the insurance for the Islanders in the 53rd minute, bouncing a header past Lake Washington keeper Mikaela Powers off a Piper Casey corner kick.
“I think this gives us a lot of momentum because it was frustrating not scoring the past couple of games,” Steiner said of her team’s two-goal effort. “I think this will get us fired up for the next game.”
The Islanders will take on the loser of Thursday’s 3A Metro tournament game between Eastside Catholic and Holy Names. The crossover game will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at Southwest Athletic Complex.
