Led by Ferris grad Jadon Bowton, UW men’s soccer advances in NCAA tourney

SEATTLE – Thanks to brilliant work by former Ferris High School goalkeeper Jadon Bowton, the University of Washington men’s soccer team is still alive in the NCAA men’s soccer tournament.

Bowton, a 2020 graduate of Ferris, was the star in Thursday’s penalty-kick shootout, saving all three shots he faced from Seattle University, and Egor Akulov made the winning shot as UW took the shootout 3-0 on a cold night at Husky Soccer Stadium.

It was a taut and suspenseful match, just like you would expect from evenly matched teams from the same city playing for the right to have their season continue. Washington and Seattle University battled hard through two halves and two overtimes and nothing was settled as neither team scored. So a game that seemed destined to go to penalty kicks did.

It was a match in which neither team deserved to lose, and technically, neither did as it goes down as a tie. But only one team celebrated afterward.

“We really wanted to end that game before (penalty kicks) because when you go to (penalty kicks), it seems like it’s a crapshoot,” Washington coach Jamie Clark said. “But like anything, it is a momentum game. And Jadon really got momentum going on his side.”

Because of that, Washington (8-5-7) earned a berth in the second round Sunday at No. 12 seed SMU (10-2-6).

In the Big Ten Conference Tournament on Nov. 7, Bowton was unable to save Michigan State’s first three penalty kicks before saving the fourth as UW won 5-3 in that shootout.

Bowton said he had never saved three penalty kicks in a row before.

“With one, I’ve done my part for the team,” he said. “Then, after two, I’m on top of the world. And three, just even better, the cherry on top.”

Washington and Seattle University (12-4-4) had met twice before in the NCAA Tournament, with Seattle winning 3-2 in overtime in 2017 and UW winning 4-2 in 2013. It became clear pretty quickly that goals would be much harder to come by in this matchup.

Seattle had the best scoring chance in the first overtime, with Bowton making a nice save on a shot by Luke Hammond. Bowton made an even better save in the second overtime on a shot by Edgar Leon, setting up the dramatic conclusion.