BY GERARDO BOLONG

Tough defense and total team contributions boosted the West Seattle Wildcats to a 1-0 3A Metro League boys soccer against rival Chief Sealth on Mon., April 24, at the Southwest Athletic Complex.

The Wildcats improved to 5-2-5 while the home team Seahawks dropped to 4-7 in league.
"We played scrappy," said West Seattle head coach Kyle Nothstein. "There was good defense. The team kept good poise. Everybody who was on the field contributed and gave their hearts into the effort. They left everything on the field."

Both teams went at each other strongly and evenly from the beginning with quick burst attacks, but lacking good ground passing.

Chief Sealth organized its passing and spacing after relying on sideline runs to set up numerous cross passes that were not picked up for shots as it held field position.

West Seattle actually delivered the more dangerous scoring attempts despite being on its heels for long periods.

After the middle of the first half, the Wildcats got off their heels to start pouring passes into Chief Sealth territory., nearly scoring just before intermission.

Junior Seahawk keeper Levi Erdman executed yeoman like work in turning Wildcat shots from point blank range and on the edges of net throughout the match up to keep Chief Sealth in a 0-0 deadlock at the half.
The teams exchanged immediate offensive strikes to open the second half, but by the 48th minute, West Seattle was peppering shots at the Seahawk goal with regularity.

With the pressure purely on the Chief Sealth defenders, it appeared to be just a matter of time before the Wildcats broke through.

Alex Coronado who had been consistently skirting the sideline and the middle for WS finally got a step around a defender to outflank CS keeper Erdman in the middle for the go ahead goal in the 54th minute.
"I just kept trying my hardest the whole game," he said.

Unable to mount many challenges on the West Seattle goal, Chief Sealth spent most of the remaining minutes keeping the Wildcats off the scoreboard.

"It was a hard fought game," said Chief Sealth head coach Ron Johnson. "It's a matter of putting the ball in the back of the net. They did and we didn't. It's been hit or miss for us this season."