It happened so quickly, the "change."

Maybe, even without star South Puget Sound League North all-league players Kelyn Rowe and Murphy Campbell in the lineup from Crossfire restrictions of high school soccer from their P-1 club coach, this Jason Baumgardt coached and Omar Cruz captained Federal Way team can still be packing some firepower at the end of this season.

The result of playing Decatur was a good one to boost their chances anyway, a 3-1 win over their rivals at Federal Way Memorial Wednesday.

"If we keep playing like tonight, we will have a chance at the playoffs, and, hopefully after that get back to the state championship," said senior forward Andrew Hare of the Eagles.

The Gators, just two nights before this game, knocked off the SPSL North undefeated team, Thomas Jefferson, 3-2. So, the sequence shows parity in the SPSL North and shows much needed momentum for the Eagles. With still half the season to play. 1-3-2 is the Eagles record so far. The Gators dropped to 2-3-1.

It's starting to look like whoever will win the North will do it by a hair.

Federal Way's Hair was not able to play in a week earlier game, a 2-0 loss to the TJ Raiders, in a game, truth be told, that wasn't even that close. Shooting was the problem in that one. The Eagles were outshot 20-1 in that game.

They needed Hare's firepower. They also could have used senior Lalo Moralles too -- a speedy forward who is still in question of playing after being a goal scorer on the 4A runner-up last year. Both in the front will give the Eagles a fighting chance to get back to state after this tough SPSL North start.

Hare started things off. Eight minutes into the first half he hammered in a shot from way back, about 30 yards from the goal.

"I was about five yards behind the 18 yard line and it just like floated in and hit the back post," said Hare.

That made it, 1-0, Eagles, and, really the whole first half belonged to the Eagles, outshooting the Gators, 5-0.

The back line, led by the dynamic Cruz at sweeper and, Nevin Hare in front of him, at stopper, could stop almost any shot the Gators took this game.

It took until the 60th minute for the Gators to even get a shot off and a beauty it was, though. A great crossing ball in the corner on the right wing from Jarod Johnson found the head of Will Brokaw. He snapped his head sideways to the ball and bulleted it past a diving Eagles keeper, Vinton Lane, who may have got a fingernail on it to make the ball clang off the crossbar.

But that shot came so long into the game and by that time the Eagles in fact had scored another goal at the 55th minute, having it go in on a great cross from Hare to the middle, a leading air-born pass of grandeur, that found the jumping, trapping, waiting body of Tommy Osborn.

He corralled the ball into the six-yard penalty box and dribbled it by the keeper as both clashed into each other. And, Osborn then smashed the ball into an empty goal to make it 2-0 at that time, before Decatur's first shot of the game by a full five minutes.

Then, the Gators finally scored at the 67th minute as persistence hitting the net, two times before their score, including the flying Brokaw header, paid off with a Ata Soltanizad boot from just inside the top of the 18-yard box to make it 2-1.

The Gators then had the momentum, but it would be only momentarily as the Eagles scored right after that, four minutes later, to make it 3-1 and all but seal the deal.

It was Hare again, a nice play of a scramble for the ball after a run-in with the Gators' goalie.

"The keeper jumped up and came down and put me in a headlock and I went to the ground with him," said Hare. "I got up and got the ball and shot it."

On an open goal, that was a nice play, too.

Baumgardt's words before the game were about not letting their rivals sweep them in the first half of the season.

"We already had lost to TJ," said Hare. "This is the crosstown rivals we need to beat."

And '"beat" they did. But it should be more good action when these two go at it again later on in the season, April 29, as well as when Federal Way plays TJ in a rematch on April 15.

"Hopefully we beat TJ next time," said Hare. "I think we will have a much better chance."

The Eagles mixed some things up to get their first league win of the season, not mentioning strategy except to say the midfield was different with Conner Girard in there, along with mainstay, Carter Brossard, according to Hare. Also, senior forward, Franklin Nnanau had three or four of the Eagles shots in this one, showing some nice dribble fakes before shots that were on goal but to the keeper mostly. He was originally cut but is back on the team getting a second chance.

Also, Cruz was talking to players, laughing up the first season win after the game and he swiped the head of senior Jameson Louimar.

"Hey, way better," said Cruz, last year's SPSL North MVP as a junior. "Keep it up."

Maybe he was also talking to his whole team. They certainly did look like a whole different team than ever before. Rivalry or not, it was a dominating performance by the cellar dwellae that didn't look like it any more.

Shots on goal in this game favored the Gators, 13-3.

Decatur 2, TJ 1

Rolling thunder and lightning, hail and rain all marked the Monday, March 31 game -- mostly from a distance -- and the action went on without a scoreboard.

The Coca-Cola sponsored red sign that has stood just past the end zone and the track for a couple decades was being readied to be brought down and replaced by a new Taco Bell-sponsored board. So the only place the time was being kept was by the referee.

But the Decatur Gators did score what turned out to be the winning goal somewhere in the closing five minutes, when Austin Nuss took a free kick from about 30 yards out. The shot from the right side slashed across the goal mouth and into the left back corner, breaking a 1-1 tie.

Ernan Roman of the Raiders scored the first goal of the game, then Thomas Jefferson fought off one Decatur penalty kick only to be struck by another one.

Kevin Day took both, including the one that scored when he drilled the ball past the goalie who was lunging the wrong direction on an anticipated play.

The 1-1 score lasted until Nuss sizzled in his free kick in the end.

Federal Way 2, Kentridge 2

The Eagles struck late to forge a tie against Kentridge in South Puget Sound League North Division action Monday, March 31. Andrew Hare did the scoring honors on a cross from Kevin Olson with about six minutes left to play.

Tim Clinton contributed the Monday portion of this report.