The pivotal winner-to-state, loser-out 1A Emerald City League championship game was the fourth meeting between Cedar Park Christian and Overlake’s boys soccer teams this season.
In the three previous meetings, Overlake had beaten the Eagles by one goal each time — 4-3, 2-1 and, finally, 1-0 back on Oct. 8. But the tables were turned on the hard-luck Owls as Cedar Park scored an early sixth-minute goal off the foot of junior midfielder Steven Dressler for all the offense the Eagles needed in a 1-0 victory on Tuesday.
For the Eagles, Dressler’s 35-yard goal translated into the program’s first-ever state berth.
“That kid had a real nice shot,” said Overlake coach Bob Bristol on Dressler’s score that was just out of the reach of Owl goalkeeper J.J. Cardenas. “Not much we can do about that. For the most part, we shut them down (in the) second half. It looked like we lived in their end of the field, but we just couldn’t find the goal. They have a real good goalie, and we put all the pressure on and did everything we could to get a goal, but it just didn’t happen tonight.”
“It was phenomenal, and he scored one like that last game,” said Eagles’ coach Ken Kerr on Dressler’s game-winner. “Same exact thing, turn and shoot.”
In 2008, the Eagles supposedly earned a berth for placing third in the district, only to be heartbroken as the team found out later that just two squads would advance to the 1A state tournament.
With everything on the line against a previously undefeated team in Overlake (12-0-0 in league play), the Eagles would not be denied a trip to the Big Dance this time around.
“We’ve had so many close games with these guys, they’re a great team,” Kerr said. “Bob (Bristol) runs a great organization, but we just had to believe in ourselves. We thought we were there, but didn’t believe it. It was such a tight game, we executed our game plan the first 10 minutes… poked one in, then went back and played defense.”
And with the incredible amount of experienced upperclassmen on Cedar Park’s squad, one of the few starting non-seniors was more than happy to come through for his teammates.
“My coach and assistant coach told me when I got in to be aggressive and put pressure on the defense,” Dressler said. “But it was the heart of our guys. I think we wanted it more, we have 15 seniors on this team and they deserve this. I was just trying to help.”
Cedar Park goalkeeper Kevin House earned the shutout, his league-leading seventh on the season, including making four second-half saves to keep the Owls at bay.
The Eagles (12-4-0 overall) will advance to the 1A state tournament next spring while Overlake finished with a 14-1-1 record.
