Eastside Catholic hosted West Seattle in a highly anticipated match up last Friday. Despite a second-half EC equalizer, West Seattle snagged a late goal to claim a 2-1 win as well as the season series against the Crusaders after drawing 1-1 earlier in the season.
West Seattle opened the scoring on the day. With strong build up play the Wildcats managed to quickly move the ball up the field, ending the move off with a strong finish slotted past EC Goalkeeper Matteo Vargas to put the Wildcats up 1-nil in the first half.
But Preston Bender of Eastside Catholic would step up big time for the Crusaders, equalizing off of a cross from Eddie Davis. He managed to just tuck the ball in past the goalkeeper after the ball bounced off of his shoulder.
As this Metro League clash-of-titans began to come to an end, West Seattle managed to sneak one more ball past this rock-solid Eastside backline (averaging 0.6 goals allowed per game), and they capitalized on the chance, scoring and putting themselves up 2-1.
Going into the game Eastside Catholic was the No. 1 ranked team in the Metro League, and West Seattle was close behind in 3rd place. This West Seattle Team is the first team to beat the Crusaders this season, and it has proven they are not invincible to the other programs of the Metro League. Eastside will be looking to rebound later today against Ingraham on what is also their senior night. The Wildcats look ahead to a Monday game against Rainier Beach when they’ll try to shore up the 2nd place spot in the Metro Sound.
