St. George’S-Northwest Match Appears One-Sided

At first blush, the matchup appears too lopsided to dissect.

St. George’s (15-0) will meet Northwest of Seattle (8-5-1) on Friday afternoon at Auburn Stadium in a State 1A/B boys soccer semifinal.

St. George’s has outscored its opponents 108-4, posting 12 shutouts along the way.

Dragons junior Micha Grueber has accounted for 40 goals, 10 more than the entire Northwest team.

Northwest has lost twice to Evergreen Lutheran, a team that St. George’s defeated 7-1 in a non-leaguer.

And yet … Northeast teams such as St. George’s are Class B schools except for Kettle Falls. The other state semifinalists, including University Prep (9-3-1) and Seattle Christian (10-2-2), are Class 1A schools with twice the enrollment of St. George’s.

Second-year Dragons coach Toraj Farzana isn’t concerned about the numbers disparity.

“The way this team clicks, we probably could have had tougher competition,” Farzana said. “But to beat (league rival) Northwest Christian four times this season says a lot about this team.”

The arrival of German exchange student Grueber was the Dragons’ biggest boost this season. St. George’s already had a solid scorer in junior Chris Johnson, who has 22 goals, and senior Drew Moser manning the goal.

“We’re lucky because we have such a well-rounded team,” said Farzana, who previously coached the Ferris C squad and teams in California. “We have a good corps of seniors and no unbalance of grades on the roster.”

Gavin Andrews and Pat Scott have combined to score 80 percent of Northwest’s goals.

St. George’s will play in Friday’s first semifinal, at 4 p.m. The other match is scheduled at 8.

Friday’s losers will meet at noon Saturday for third place. The championship match will begin at 4 p.m.

St. George’s placed third at state in 1997 and ‘98. The ‘97 team entered the semifinals with a 17-0 record.