Bobby Stoyanov knew he had to play well in the Mountlake Terrace boys soccer team’s 2A District 1/2 tournament game against Liberty on Tuesday. Several of the Hawks’ key players missed the game due to suspension or injury, leaving Stoyanov as the team’s lone offensive threat.
The junior forward responded to the challenge with perhaps the best performance of his career, tallying six goals in Mountlake Terrace’s 6-5 victory.
“I always say, ‘If you want to be the man, be the man.’ Big players step up in big games, and he answered the bell,” said Hawks coach George Dremousis. “We weren’t playing well, and we needed him, and he put the team on his back and single-handedly took over. Liberty had no answer for him. It was as good an invididual performance as I’ve ever seen in high school soccer.”
Stoyanov tallied three goals in the first half, the third coming on a penalty kick, to give Mountlake Terrace a 3-2 halftime lead. He scored three more times in the second half — a great thing for the Hawks, as things turned out, because they needed every one of his goals. The Patriots scored three times late in the second half to trim their deficit to one.
“I thought Liberty would stack him up, but they left him back there with just one guy on him,” Dremousis said. “Liberty’s defender was a bigger guy, and Bobby was able to get him off-balance. He’s so quick with either foot, and he can cut on a dime.”
Stoyanov was a member of the Seattle Sounders Academy as a freshman, but was cut from the program last year, allowing him to join the Hawks.
He’s scored 22 goals this season.
“Last season was an adjustment for him, coming from the academy. He was frustrated early on,” Dremousis said. “But he’s shown great maturity this year.”
Mountlake Terrace (13-5-0 overall), which has clinched a berth to the 2A state tournament, will play Archbishop Murphy in the 2A District 1/2 championship game at 2 p.m. Saturday in Edmonds.
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