SHORELINE — A year ago, forward Nikola Genadiev watched from the sideline as his Shorewood boys soccer team won its third straight district title.

He had been dealing with a sports hernia, playing through pain at times and missing action. Though Genadiev would have a pivotal hand in pushing the Stormrays to the state title game, where they narrowly lost, the injury put a dampener on the sport he loves.

This year, Genadiev has been pain-free and is up to 18 goals and 10 assists through 19 games. He also scored a key goal against Lynnwood in the semifinal to help propel Shorewood to its fourth straight District 1 3A title game. And on Saturday, taking on league rival Shorecrest for the third time, now with a trophy on the line, Genadiev had eyes for the goal again.

“It’s just an incredible feeling,” Genadiev said of being healthy for districts. “Being able to come out back on the field pain-free, I just think it changes your view on the sport itself, and you just find so much more joy.”

Without discomfort impairing his range of motion, Genadiev stepped to a free kick just above the 18-yard box with nothing but scoring on his mind. He launched a shot around Shorecrest’s wall in the 21st minute to find the bottom-left corner of the net and send his team to a commanding 2-0 lead.

The No. 1 Stormrays (18-0-1) held onto that advantage through the final 59 minutes, taking down No. 3 Shorecrest (15-3-1) to win their district fourth title in as many years.

Four Shorewood seniors played varsity minutes for each title year. Senior Ian Baxter, who opened the scoring with a goal on an assist from fellow senior Daniel Bruno in the 14th, came into a District 1 scene that had quality teams all around as a freshman. Edmonds-Woodway placed fourth at State that year, while Monroe and Shorecrest each made the tournament.

To see his team run the district for years on end was unexpected, to say the least.

“From a freshman-year perspective, I could have never imagined this,” Baxter said. “We all grew up together… we slowly began to dominate the league, it just means everything to me.”

For Shorewood head coach Shaun Warner, this run at districts has been a lesson for his team in the urgency that comes with playing this deep into the spring. The Stormrays trailed Lynnwood at one point in that 3-2 semifinal win, and had to hold off a rival in Shorecrest to secure the title.

“One thing (the team learned) is teams that get this far are good. Everyone’s good; it’s going to be a grind-it-out battle. It does come down to set pieces… we learned to try to limit mistakes out of the back and then punish teams when they make them.”

In the early going of the game, Shorewood’s physicality in the midfield became the theme of the game. 

The Stormrays boxed the Scots out for each loose ball and played a decisive brand of soccer to work in behind. In the 13th minute, Genadiev outran the Scots backline to score an opener off the right post. Although Genadiev was offside to void the opening score, the Stormrays knew their near-30-goal contributor was ready to play from how well he was slicing through Shorecrest’s line.

A minute later, senior George Clark played a deep ball to the winger in space, one that Genadiev didn’t see coming, by his account.

Nevertheless, he controlled it well and worked around the defense to put a ball in for Bruno.

Baxter waited on the far post as he watched it all develop. He trains with Bruno in the offseason and had faith that he’d factor into the play.

“Part of me, in the back of my mind, knew that he would get the ball to me. I had to delay my run, make sure that I was not offsides. Tapped it in.”

As he celebrated just 14 minutes into the game, Baxter had the confidence to gesture two fours at The Herald’s camera in his celebration — a nod to the team’s hopeful fourth straight district title.

“I felt from the beginning of the game that our momentum, our energy, it was way better than the Lynnwood game. And I knew that because we got that first goal, we were winning this game,” Baxter said.

Seven minutes later, Shorewood put the pressure back on by playing a ball into Shorecrest’s box. A Scots defender tried to put a stop to the ball at the top of the 18, but the ball ricocheted into his hand for a free kick inches outside of the box.

As Genadiev stepped up, he wasn’t thinking of anything but scoring.

“I believe in my skills a lot, so I’m gonna take that shot all day,” Genadiev said. “Nine out of 10 times, I’m always gonna go keeper’s side regardless of where the wall sets up. I picked my spot, and that’s where it went.”

Indeed, Genadiev made it look that simple as his shot curled into the bottom left corner for a key goal in helping the Stormrays assert themselves.

Though his team had fallen behind 2-0, Shorecrest coach Teddy Mitalis made some adjustments to keep the Scots in the physical battle.

He reinforced the midfield by putting four players in that region, as midfielders Miles Garbaccio and Maceo Jala stepped up late with dispossessions on multiple Shorewood pushes.

Still, the Stormrays managed the first seven straight corners of the game, keeping the ball in Shorecrest’s third with constant pressure.

Though junior Eli Barr narrowly missed on a well-hit ball to threaten Shorewood late, the Stormrays were disciplined in clearing dangerous balls before the Scots could get easy scoring chances. Senior Kaare Nye tabbed the clean sheet with a few solid saves as regular Shorewood defensive stars Caleb Butler and Meiron Bereket had solid contributions throughout.

For now, the Scots will look to put together a solid run at State.

Though Mitalas noted his team isn’t the most physically imposing, he believes the Scots’ speed and the talent of dribblers like Cole Ambrose and Ashton Johnson, who each stunned on Saturday with solid runs throughout, can help Shorecrest on the big stage.

“Play high-school soccer,” Mitalis said of his plan for State. “Play run-and-gun, and we have the talent to do that.”

Meanwhile, the Stormrays will head into the state tournament looking to avenge a 3-2 loss to Mercer Island in last year’s title game, when Shorewood’s late rally at Sparks Stadium in Puyallup came up short.

The Stormrays’ roster has 13 seniors, with the rest of the team being juniors. Needless to say, the sense of urgency to go for the school’s first state title since 1978 is alive and well.

“This is our last run, and this is also one of the best Shorewood teams that has ever been created,” Baxter said. “We need to take advantage of that. We know what we have to do.”