Bellevue Athletic Defeat Everett Jets 3-1 for Fourth Consecutive Win

Written by Adam Race

Bellevue Athletic notched a 3-1 win against Everett Jets on Sunday at Bellevue College, pushing their undefeated streak to five straight games with their fourth win in a row. A brace from Owen Gortner and an insurance goal from Beckham Mischel sealed the deal, as BAFC now sit in second place in the UPSL-Washington table, and one win away from clinching a playoff spot. 

The win also marks 14 straight home matches undefeated in competitive play for BAFC, a full calendar year in which Bellevue has won 13 and drawn just one match on the Eastside.

Bellevue Athletic’s last 13 competitive home matches 

The match started with balanced possession and each team getting opportunities to attack. The first chance for Bellevue came from their in-form striker Owen Gortner, who was able to get on the end of a Kenny Mansally through-ball in the 10th minute, but put his low driven effort just wide of net.

Gortner would not miss his second opportunity, when after an end-to-end passage of play, he received a chipped pass from Aiden Drought at the top of the box and fired a powerful shot just beyond Everett keeper Justin Rodriguez-Cortes, who was able to get a hand to it but was unable to keep it out. The goal marked the third straight Bellevue match in which Gortner has opened the scoring, all of which BAFC have gone on to win.

It wouldn’t take Gortner long to find his second goal of the match, as just six minutes later in the 23rd, some creative play from Kenny Mansally down the right wing would open space for Gortner to get free in the box. Mansally picked out the pass, and Gortner was able to turn and fire on his second touch, slotting it into the far side netting for a first-half brace and his sixth goal in just three UPSL matches in 2025. Gortner, who was Bellevue’s second leading scorer in Fall 2024 behind only Jason Stein, has already taken the lead as BAFC’s top scorer so far in 2025 despite missing the first four matches of the season due to injury.

Everett would get their first opportunity to respond in the 25th minute when a corner kick led to a scramble at the top of the six-yard box, and a side-footed volley effort by Johan Gaytan was blocked at the goal line by Eyal Shechtman. 

Everett would find their breakthrough in the 35th minute, when a shot at the top of the box from Santiago Vergara was parried by Matt Janke, but fell right to the feet of Johan Gaytan, who was able to make it 2-1. 

The scoreline would remain at 2-1 going into halftime, after an eventful first 45 in which three of the five total shots on goal found the back of the net. 

The second half would have much less action than the first, but Bellevue was able to find an insurance goal early in the period. In the 52nd minute, Beckham Mischel intercepted a throw-in deep in Everett territory and took a shot from outside the box. Mischel’s effort was directed at Rodriguez-Cortes, but the Everett netminder bobbled it, sending it off the post and in to make it 3-1. This was Mischel’s first goal for Bellevue in 2025.

After the insurance tally, Bellevue settled into controlling the match, holding the majority of the possession but not creating many chances. The best remaining look at goal the hosts would get was in the 71st minute when Jackson Finn would find himself one-on-one with Rodriguez-Cortez, but his chipped effort was over-struck and cleared the crossbar. 

Everett had a couple more golden chances to get a goal back, both coming for the goal-scorer Johan Gaytan, who found himself on the end of almost every attacking move for the visitors all match. In the 72nd minute, Gaytan would muscle his way past the Bellevue backline and drive a shot past Janke, but just beyond the far post. He would once again get space to shoot in the 80th, this time taking aim for a near-post finish but rattling it off the woodwork. 

The match would wind down and end with a score of 3-1, giving Bellevue a victory in their first-ever competitive match against Everett Jets.

Gortner was once again the hero on the scoresheet, but Aiden Drought was instrumental throughout the match in winning back possession, linking offense and defense, and creating chances out on the wing. Drought provided the first assist of the match, which was also his first goal involvement of 2025 for Bellevue. 

“What’s working right now is that we are putting trust in each other and building chemistry,” said Drought post-match on Bellevue’s four-game winning streak. “The mission remains the same: win, keep the mentality, and enjoy it.”

Drought has shown off his positional versatility over the last few matches, putting in a crucial midfield performance two weeks ago against United Sports, and this week doing most of his damage on the wing. When asked about his ability to slot into multiple roles, Drought said: “My main goal is to always help the team win. Wherever I’m needed, I try to make the best effect I can. My favorite position is out on the wing. I can trust my midfielders, I can trust my outside backs, and I just feel free to roam and be creative. When I’m given a different responsibility, I like to fill that too, but I like giving myself a little bit of creative freedom.”

When asked about the key to maintaining the team’s current momentum, Drought echoed the sentiments of coaching staff over the last few weeks: “Going into training with the same mentality that we have going into a game, focusing on every game individually and taking that through the rest of the season.”

Bellevue Head Coach Mike Mata talked post-game about Drought’s impact over the last few games, and how his time with Bellevue Athletic 2 helped him get into form for the first team. “It’s the consequence of good effort, and says very good things about our program. Aiden came back after a few months, got some with the second team, always was there and never missed a practice, and earned the minutes he’s been getting. It’s so valuable to have a second team in a competitive league, because it gives the players the level of competitive soccer that they need.”

Mata said that he attributes Bellevue’s current run of form to the team’s mentality and confidence. “When we were playing SeaGam and they scored some goals on us, the mentality and confidence dropped, and we have been working on maintaining that mentality and confidence a lot since then.”

With the team now just one win away from securing a spot in the playoffs, all focus goes to Sunday’s match on the road against Snohomish Sky. “These next two matches, Snohomish and SeaGam, are two finals. We need to win against Snohomish because we are sure that SeaGam won’t drop points.” 

If Bellevue can win against Snohomish, it would set up a rematch at home against league leaders SeaGam, which could essentially function as a game to determine the regular season champions of UPSL-Washington. 

BAFC take on the Sky at 5:45 PM on Sunday, June 1st at Snohomish High School with a playoff spot within reach.

SCORING RECAP