By the grace of two left feet, the Mountain View boys soccer will dance into the 3A state semifinals.
Nathan Purvis and Christopher Grozav drove home left-footed goals to lift the Thunder to a 2-0 win over Kamiakin on Saturday at McKenzie Stadium, advancing the squad to its first final four since 2012.
“It’s huge,” coach Dustin Johnson said. “I told the guys to go out there and have fun, and enjoy it. And we did.”
The highlight-reel moments made it that much more exciting for the Thunder (16-5-1).
In the 16th minute, goalkeeper Cole Taylor made a diving fingertip save on a shot destined for the side netting. As has been the case several times this season, the momentum from the stop parlayed into Mountain View offense.
A minute later, Grozav battled off three Braves’ defenders, before slipping a left-footed shot through a gap and past the Kamiakin keeper for a 1-0 advantage.
“We could have been 1-nil down,” Grozav said. “We saw we needed to take advantage of the situation.”
The Thunder controlled the physical affair the rest of the opening 40 minutes. But Kamiakin (12-6) brought everything it had in the second half and pressed the Thunder defense, which turned away attack after attack.
As the clock wound down, Purvis, the 3A Greater St. Helens League offensive player of the year, had to put his imprint on the game. A defender draped over him, he feinted right to free space and fired a bullet with his left foot into the little net available from the sharp angle.
Game over.
“He just rips those,” Taylor said. “When it went upper corner like that, it was insane. I was in awe.”
The Thunder players were in awe, too, of clinching a trip to Sparks Stadium in Puyallup on Friday, when they’ll meet Lakeside of Seattle, in a 2 p.m. semifinal.
“Nobody expected this to happen,” Grozav said. “But now that we’re here and finally realizing reality, we’re ready to go.”
