When the Bothell High soccer team walked off the field following a 3-0 loss in a winner-to-the-playoffs game against Lake Washington High in the final game of the regular season, the Cougars sat around with their cell phones — waiting to hear if Eastlake High defeated Woodinville High. If Eastlake won, Bothell would make the playoffs for the first time since 2002. A loss, and Bothell’s season was over.

“I was just really antsy because I didn’t know how to feel,” senior Kyle Wymer said. “If I should feel like it’s all over now, or what to do.”

When the Cougars finally heard Eastlake had pulled off the 1-0 victory, Bothell knew it had accomplished the goal it had set since 2002: to get back to the Kingco playoffs.

And it’s a good thing the team did, because it set up the upset of the year.

Bothell upended Redmond — considered by many, including Bothell head coach Alex Zahajko, to be the best team in 4A Kingco — 2-0 on Saturday in the first round of the 4A Kingco tournament. Bothell jumped on Redmond early when Michael Rogers chested down a pass from Alan Villavicencio and scored from 25 yards out into the left side of the net. Bothell then scored again in the 68th minute when goalie Shane Lervold caught a free kick and was able to find Victor Gonzalez one-on-one with a Redmond defender on a breakaway. Gonzalez’s goal gave Bothell an insurance score that the Cougars wouldn’t need thanks to Lervold’s shutout.

All this was made possible after a 5-5-0 regular season, that included a win against 4A Kingco regular-season champion Juanita and the first playoff berth since 2002.

“It’s been different because we’ve had so many younger players on the team,” said Travis Bear, one of just three seniors on a team with five starting sophomores. “But it’s a lot different because we work a lot better than we did last year. We have a lot more talent this year. And it’s been better this year because we’ve been able to bring that talent together, which is why we made the playoffs.”

Bear, ironically, thought his season was over following the Lake Washington loss. He didn’t remember that the team could still get in if Eastlake had won.

“It was tough, because when the game was over, I took it pretty hard just because it was just like our season was over,” Bear said. “Then I remembered we still had a chance. So it seemed like a lot longer (than 10 minutes) to wait until we made the playoffs.”

Getting to the playoffs was a moment of joy following a season of tragedy. Back on April 10, Bothell junior Ryan DePuy — who had earned a letter on the soccer team as a sophomore — passed away at the age of 17.

Zahajko said it was a difficult time for the team, and it showed itself on the field in the first game after the passing with a 3-0 loss to Roosevelt.

Many teams may not recover from all that had happened, but Bothell somehow found a way to pull together. Zahajko said an important moment was when DePuy’s father came and spoke to the team and gave them his “blessing” to continue playing hard. Zahajko said that was important because it’s “always awkward to continue playing” after a tragedy of that nature.

The team ended up coming together on the field, beating first-place Juanita 4-2 after the Roosevelt defeat.

“When thinking all is lost, the season is lost, we played the No. 1 team in the league, Juanita, and just whipped them,” Zahajko said. “At that point, I think they really started their belief in themselves.”

That belief brought them to not only make the playoffs for the first time since 2002, it carried over to pull of the upset of the season. Bothell had to play in another loser-out game on Tuesday, after the Reporter’s deadline, against Lake Washington. A win, and Bothell would play Thursday at Juanita High for a chance to make it to state.

“I’m a very optimistic guy, so I am optimistic about the season,” Zahajko said. “But this one felt different from the start … It definitely had a different feel that we are a dangerous team, not just a team looking to survive a game, but a team that can attack a game, take over a game and have other teams finally react to us instead of just dodge bullets in order to get results.”