[9]June 5, 2009www.issaquah-reporter.com • www.sammamish-reporter.com

SPORTS

ISSAQ

UAH

SAM

MAM

ISH

BY KEVIN ENDEJAN

kendejan@issaquah-reporter.com

Issaquah lacrosse coach Brandon Fortier experi-enced the longest second of his life Saturday night at Seattle’s Memorial Stadium — literally.

“It felt like about 10 seconds to me,” Fortier said, smiling. “It (seriously) felt like at least 3.”

Up by one goal, with one second le� in the Divi-sion I state championship, Eagle goalkeeper Cameron Danforth came up with his biggest save of the season, blocking a blast o� the stick of Mercer Island’s Doug Mahony.

� e de� ection, which came a� er a penalty was called just yards from the Issaquah goal, preserved a 10-9 Issaquah victory, and marked the program’s sec-ond straight Division I title.

“I was just sitting there thinking to myself, ‘Just do everything that you’re used to doing as goalie,’” Danforth said.

� e close ending contradicted most of the contest, which saw Issaquah maintain no less than a three-goal cushion through the � rst three quarters. � e Eagles matched their largest lead of the game at the 8:45 mark of the fourth quarter when senior Jordan Goldstein blasted in his fourth goal of the game for a 10-5 lead.

� ings turned quickly, however.

Mercer Island chipped away at the Issaquah lead,

before pulling to within one goal with 10 seconds remaining via a score from Matthew Shields.

“I hate to sort of just hang on like that rather than putting it away, but the bot-tom line is, the e� ort was good enough, and we did enough early to deserve the win,” Fortier said.

� e Eagles, who lost 6-4 to the Island-ers in the regular season, hopped out to a 4-1 lead a� er one quarter. Jake Di-rector had two � rst-quarter goals, and Jake Fritz struck for the � rst of his four goals

with just over 2 minutes le� in the � rst quarter.

“Our o� ense just got together and played good,” Fritz said, of the quick start.

Fritz scored again in the open-ing minute of the second quarter a� er an over-the-shoulder, no-look pass from Gold-stein.

“I saw the ball coming to me in the middle, and I knew the

defender was going to be coming straight at me, so I didn’t want to try and pass it through his stick,” Goldstein said. “I knew Jake (Fritz) was going to be there, so I just thought ...

why not?”� e Eagles pushed their

hal� ime lead out to 8-4, and led 8-5 a� er three quar-ters. � e Issaquah o� ense stalled at the start of the third quarter when senior mid� elder Riley Goodman injured his collarbone on the opening face-o� , and was forced from the game.

“I had to step up and try to face o� ,” senior Connor McClain said. “I didn’t do nearly as good of job as he did. He was going in and winning all the face-o� s. It was a huge, huge loss for the ball possession when he went out.”

Fritz, along with Gold-stein, each punched in early fourth-quarter goals that proved the di� erence. Fritz

and Goldstein scored four goals apiece, and Director had two.

Michael Black and Ma-hony led the Islanders with two goals apiece.

� e victory not only marked Issaquah’s second straight title, but the pro-gram’s second ever Division I crown — something that won’t soon be forgotten by the group of seven graduat-ing seniors.

“� ere’s no better feel-ing than going out on top, getting a repeat,” McClain said. “We did everything we could. All of us seniors here stepped up as much as pos-sible. We pulled it out in the end and it feels great.”

Issaquah hangs on for state lacrosse title

Issaquah’s lacrosse team celebrates its second consecutive Division I state title Saturday night. JOHNATHAN YEE, For the Reporter

POHLMAN SCORES TWO RUNS IN UW

CHAMPIONSHIP Kimi Pohlman, a member

of Eastlake’s 2008 class 4A state championship

softball team, scored two runs for the University of

Washington Tuesday night, helping the Huskies beat

Florida 3-2 for the National Softball Championship. The UW freshman, who hit No. 2 in the lineup, scored the

eventual game-winning run in the third inning, racing home on a soft hit back to

the circle that Florida pitcher Stacey Nelson couldn’t � eld.

Pohlman had at least one hit in all of the Huskies’ six

College World Series games.

“We proved that we’re going to be here for a while and hopefully we can just keep the tradition alive here at Issaquah.” –Jake Director

[ more LACROSSE page 10 ]

BY KEVIN ENDEJAN

kendejan@issaquah-reporter.com

� e � x was simple for Skyline sophomore Kasen Williams — sprint harder on his approach to the high jump bar.

“I changed my run-up in practice this week,” he said. “I adapted to that so I could get more speed. � at was my problem before, I just didn’t have enough speed.”

Williams’ new-found approach helped him clear a personal best 6-feet, 10 inches in the high jump last Friday, earning the 4A state title at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma. His previous best was 6-6.

“It felt good because there was two 7-foot jump-

ers going in, and I wasn’t one of the guys they were expecting to win, and I pulled it out,” Williams said.

Williams also leapt to a personal best 47-10 in the triple jump on Friday, tak-ing home second place be-hind Kentlake’s Zach Smith (48-1). Williams � nished third Saturday in the long jump with another personal best 23-5. He led going into the � nal group of jumpers before Justin Veltung of Puyallup went 24-5. Smith went 23-8 on his � nal jump to edge Williams.

“It still feels good to place and get third,” Williams said. “You can’t be mad at third place at state.”

� e Spartans also earned an eighth place � nish from

senior Simon Sorensen in the 800 meters. He completed the race in 1 minute, 54.81 seconds. Skyline sprinter Alex Lee, who entered the state meet with the second fastest time in the 100, failed to make it out of the prelims in the 100 and 200. � e 400 relay team also just missed the � -nals. Skyline � nished eighth overall with 25 points. Mead of Spokane won with 49 points.

� e Skyline girls, who have � nished � rst in 3A in 2007 and fourth in 3A in 2008, took � � h place over-all at the 2009 4A meet with 29 team points. Bellarmine Prep won with 56.

� e Spartan girls didn’t have any state champions,

but had six top-eight � n-ishes, including two second places.

� e 400 relay team of Kiara Williams, Shealee O’Donnell, Kaylyn Berry and Rachael Butenko � n-ished in second place in 48.29 seconds. Bellarmine Prep won the race in 47.4 seconds.

“We’re all really close with each other, and three of us are graduating this year, so it was our last race,” Butenko said. “We’re happy with what we did.”

Berry also � nished sec-ond in the long jump with a personal best 18-2 1/4 inches. Andrea Geubelle of Curtis won the event (19-4).

Williams earns 3 medals at state meet

Kasen Williams leaps 23 feet, 5 inches in the long jump � nals Saturday, � nishing third in state. KEVIN ENDEJAN, Reporter

Kimi Pohlman

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Director, another senior, concurred.

“We proved that we’re going to be here for a while, and hopefully we can just keep the tradition alive here at Issaquah,” he said.

Eastside Catholic finishes second

Eastside Catholic couldn’t overcome an early deficit Saturday evening, falling 17-11 to Overlake in the Division II state lacrosse championship at Memorial

Stadium. The Crusaders fell behind

2-0 after 1 minute of play, and were never able to recover. Overlake led 9-7 at halftime. David Carlton scored a goal 12 seconds into the second half, pulling Eastside to within 9-8, but Overlake broke off a 4-0 run

to close the third quarter.Carlton had seven goals,

and Kyle Decker added two scores for the Crusaders.

This was the first state title game for both schools. Eastside, which finished 14-2 overall, started its lacrosse program just three years ago.

[ LaCrossE from page 9]

Eastside Catholic’s Kyle Decker, top, works against the Overlake defense Saturday in the Division II state lacrosse title game. Issaquah’s Jake Director, bottom, scored two goals in the first quarter to help the Eagles to their second straight state title. JOhnathan yEE, For the Reporter