From The Sidelines To Between The Posts: Jadon Bowton's Return To The Sweet 16
November 29, 2025 | Men's Soccer
SEATTLE – The last time the Washington Huskies reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA men's soccer tournament, Jadon Bowton had his own up-close-and-personal view of all the action.
But for the then-freshman goalkeeper in the fall of 2021, that view never got any closer than watching from the sidelines.
Now it's the fall of 2025. For the first time since then, the Huskies are back in the Sweet 16. Bowton is a grad student in his final year of college competition, And once again, he has his own up-close-and-personal view of the action. Only now, instead of from the sidelines.
… Bowton is catching all of that action from between the goalposts.
He's also catching his share of on-target shots, dangerous crossing passes, and whatever else opponents might try to send his way as the ultimate steady-Eddy stopper for No. 23-ranked Washington.
Come Sunday evening, Bowton and his UW teammates will tangle with former Pacific-12 Conference rival Stanford. The Cardinal, ranked No. 8 in the latest national coaches poll and seeded No. 12 for the NCAAs, will be on their home Maloney Field for the 5:00 p.m. kickoff.
"Stanford is always a battle. You know walking into that game, it's going to be a tough game," said Bowton, the only player still remaining from that 2021 roster. "Especially to the older guys, it means a little more because they're the ones who experienced the Pac-12. It's always an intense, heated game.
"We have a lot of respect for each other," he added. "But we want to knock each other out (of the tournament)."
Bowton and the Huskies already have gone against a previous Pac-12 foe on the way to get this far. On Nov. 20 in Corvallis, they pulled off a come-from-behind 3-2 victory at Oregon State, tying the game on Connor Lofy's goal with 5:43 left in regulation, then winning on Richie Aman's dramatic goal with 6:43 left in the second and final sudden-death overtime period.
Last Sunday in Dallas, the Huskies edged Southern Methodist, 1-0, on a goal by Lofy with just less than 19 minutes to play. In the 2024 tournament, it was SMU that was headed to the Sweet 16 after a 2-1 second-round victory against Washington.
"Oregon State was a really exciting game. We knew we were going to have to face some adversity at some point in the tournament," Bowton said. "The team did really well just bouncing back and competing. I remember at halftime (when the Huskies were down 1-0), I looked around and told everyone we were going to win this game and that we were going to control the game if we just take care of our set pieces and defend like we had been."
Washington was even more dominant at Southern Methodist last weekend, with a 17-8 advantage in shots, 4-1 on target.
"My back line did a really good of allowing only one shot on goal," Bowton said. "The back line, our midfield, even our forwards applying pressure up high helps us in the back a lot. I had to come out for some crosses, but the team made my job easy in that game."
CALM, COLLECED – AND CONSISTENT
At a towering 6 feet, 4 inches, it's no problem at all for Jadon Bowton to reach high and touch the crossbar. Or to rise and pull down a crossing target ball. Or to leap and knock a shot over the top of the net.
Those are the highs he can reach physically – great things for a goalkeeper. But perhaps an even greater thing is a high he tries not to reach by keeping his mental approach to the game on an even keel. In fact, while many goalkeepers are outgoing, engaging, even flamboyant types, Bowton comes across as more of a soft-spoken kind of guy.
"I like to be relaxed and loose until I get to the field," Bowton said. "I try not to think about the game too much. You never know what's going to happen. You can prepare, but you just never know. There's no point in stressing out about it until I get there. I've put in thousands of hours of work. I've seen everything I'm going to see in practice.
"The team watches film with Rich (Reece, the UW assistant coach who works with the goalkeepers and other defensive aspects of the game plan). I also do some more film with Rich and with the other goalkeeper, talking about their attackers and their tendencies," Bowton added. "Other than that, I don't really have a routine like a lot of other people do. I just have to trust in my abilities when the time comes and show up."
With the kind of results he has had – especially this season – it's hard to argue with his process. An All-Big Ten second-team selection and winner of the Big Ten Goalkeeper of the Week for the third time in his career (he won twice last year), Bowton has played 15 of the 20 games, logging 1,355 of Washington's total 1,813 minutes of action.
Just 17 balls have gotten past him for a 1.13 goals-against average. In those 15 games, Bowton has five shutouts
"He has been the picture of consistency," Reece said. "Goalkeeper is very different from any other positions int hat one of the best things you need to have is no highs, no lows. He has very much been that really good, steady,, consistent performance. That gives confidence to the people ahead of him."
In fact, even if it comes down to a penalty kick shootout to decide who keeps playing and who goes home, Bowton maintains that aforementioned even keel.
"I get excited for PKs and I'm pretty confident with PKs," he said. "Personally, I feel PKs are less pressure on me than the (rest of) the game because I'm not expected to save them. If I get one or two saves, my teammates will put theirs in the back of the net. Just remain calm, do what you know how to do."
ALWAYS STAYING CONNECTED
Sometimes, words just aren't necessary.
A look can say it all. A gesture can speak volumes. Saying nothing can, essentially, say everything.
Of course, that doesn't always carry over onto the soccer field. In the heat of the action, teammates are talking to each other all the time, whether it's giving directions or calling out a warning when trouble is brewing or is headed their way.
Bowton talks to his teammates on the field, too, especially the defenders playing in front of him. But there are many instances where it seems as if each of those guys instinctively knows what the other guy is thinking or is going to do next.
"I trust those guys like crazy, and I think they trust me, too," Bowton said. "I think we have an unspoken deal that if they don't allow shots, then I'll come out for all of the crosses."
Of course, every team is going to create goal-scoring chances, and some of them are going to go in. But against Washington's defense this season, only 21 of the opponents' 225 total shots have gone in. And only 71 of those 225 – an average of just 3.5 per game – have even been on target.
"Harry Bertos is incredible to have in front of me – he puts out so many fires," Bowton said. "Egor (Akulov) is supposed to be the ball-playing or passing centerback, but he also does really well defending. Gabe Fernandez, Asher Hestad, Zack Meier, they just run forever – I don't know how they do it. If they're up field and then if the other team is counterattacking, they're in front of me in a second, defending with their lives. And Connor Lofy is in there stopping a lot of stuff, being our guy in front of the back line.
"They all just work so hard."
Aklulov says it's simply a matter of being on the same wavelength.
"It's really easy playing with Jadon because he communicates all the time," he said. "He's really good at pulling down crosses. There's not as many shots because he catches them. But there's (also) not as many shots because we block them."
All of those connections are just as evident to assistant coach Reece.
"The back four and Jadon take an incredible amount of pride at stopping the ball from going into the net. If one guy gets beat, another guy gets behind it. If they all get beat, Jadon has pulled some fantastic saves."
WORKING HIS WAY UP
From the freshman just watching the action in 2021 to the grad student in the heat of the action in 2025, Jadon Bowton has come a long way as a Husky.
"I was a very raw goalkeeper coming in freshman year, said Bowton, who went 18-3 with an 0.60 goals-against average as a junior at Spokane's Ferris High School in 2019, then didn't get a senior season in 2020 because of the pandemic shutdown. "Sam Fowler, the goalkeeper who was playing that year (eight shutouts and an 0.74 GAA in leading the Huskies to the NCAA title game against Clemson) helped me improve a lot, just technical-wise. He was always looking for an opportunity to help me."
That paid off in 2022 when Fowler suffered a broken arm. Thrust into the starting role, Bowton's first opponent was, ironically, Stanford, then ranked No. 5 in the country. All he did was help shut out the Cardinal, 3-0. He subsequently was between the posts for the next five games, He went 4-0-2 during that stretch with three straight clean sheets at the front end of it to help the Huskies wrap up the Pac-12 title.
"I don't know if I was ready, but the coaches trusted me," Bowton said. "We did really well, and that boosted my confidence a little bit."
Added Reece, "He wasn't a highly recruited kid by any means. He came in and said, 'I'm going to have to put my head down and work hard and work my way up from No. 4 to No.1.' And he has done that, without any airs and graces. When Sam broke his arm, he came in and was fantastic for six games."
Fowler was back in 2023, and Bowton played in just three games totaling 225 minutes, although even in that situation, "he was a fantastic teammate," Reece said.
Then came last season when he played every minute of Washington's 21 matches He posted eight shutouts, which rank as the sixth-most for a single season in program history.
Even as he now prepares for Sunday's Sweet 16 showdown with Stanford, the 23-year-old Bowton still feels some of the good vibes from that freshman year experience in 2021 when he helped root the Huskies on to the national title game.
"We had some amazing players that year going into the College Cup," he said in reference to soccer's version of the Final Four. "I think I appreciate it more now. I understand how hard it is to get there. I still bring some energy from that team and confidence into this team."
The Huskies still need three more wins to return to the final. But Bowton, sees no reason why the Huskies can't get those three more wins – and then get a fourth one to haul off the big prize.
"We're a good team – we should be getting far into the tournament," he said. "We can do it. Maybe some games go into overtime, maybe some games go to PKs. But if we do what we can and go out there for each other, we can get back there."
And this time, Jadon Bowton's up-close-and-personal view of the action will be from inside the goalposts …
… not from the sidelines.
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