COLLEGE SOCCER: Peninsula hosts powerhouse UW team at Wally Sigmar

PORT ANGELES — The Peninsula College men’s soccer team not only got a little taste of big-time NCAA soccer Saturday, the Pirates largely held their own against one of the elite programs in the entire nation.

The University of Washington men’s team, the defending Pac-12 champion, played an exhibition game against Peninsula on the new surface at Wally Sigmar Field. UW scored a trio of goals in the first half, but that was the only scoring the Pirates allowed as they played the Huskies much tougher in what finished as a 3-0 UW win.

It was one of two games UW played Saturday. After the game at Sigmar Field that concluded near noon, the Huskies ate lunch then boarded a ferry for Victoria, B.C. and played a second exhibition against Pacific FC, a professional Canadian Premier League team based in Victoria.

The game was played in front of a big crowd of youth soccer and Storm King soccer players, who were invited to attend. Both teams were blessed with about 75 minutes of near-perfect sunny weather, though the conditions deteriorated a bit into wind and cold temperatures for the end of the game.

Peninsula and UW last played two years ago at an exhibition at UW. Huskies Head Coach Jamie Clark said UW did come to Port Angeles pre-pandemic, but hasn’t made the trip to the Olympic Peninsula since.

“We want to try to re-create this as an annual tradition,” he said. “We’re trying to be Washington’s team and trying to recruit within Washington.

“Peninsula has a lot of good players. It’s a chance to play a real game and scout some players,” he said.

It was the first college game on Peninsula’s brand-new $770,000 surface, though a high school game was played on it last week.

Clark congratulated Peninsula coach Jake Hughes for how well his team played, especially during the scoreless second half.

“Your boys were good in that second half, very brave,” he said.

Hughes was pleased with how the team played from start to finish.

“I was happy with the first half, to be honest. We made a few tweaks in the second half,” he said.

Hughes said the intent of playing an exhibition match against a powerhouse like UW is “to see what it’s like to play at that level. It shows where we’re deficient and what we need to work. It also showed what we do well.”

The game

As far as the game play, UW controlled the pace for the early part of the game. The Huskies nearly scored when Nani Deperro, one of the top players on the field, hit the right post in the seventh minute. Peninsula keeper Rind Vlieg of the Netherlands made a nice leaping save on a high and extremely hard shot in the 13th minute.

Deperro finally broke through in the 15th minute with an absolute rocket. Vlieg got his hands on the shot but couldn’t keep it out for a 1-0 Huskies lead. Charlie Kosakoff assisted on a Nick O’Brien goal in the 26th minute then the game largely settled down.

Peninsula’s Inchun Han (Osaka, Japan) had probably the Pirates’ best chance in the 32nd minute with an open shot, but the UW keeper came way out of the net to cut off the angle and stop it.

Peninsula nearly went into the break down just 2-0, but O’Brien scored on a nice sliding shot in the penalty area after in the 44th minute.

The second half became more physical. Han had another good chance in the 47th minute and Alfie Tucker (Devon, England) had a nice through ball to Tsubasa Abe (Saitama, Japan) in the 60th minute that led to a chance. The Huskies Woody Manum hit a crossbar in the 74th minute on a shot that nearly ricocheted in but stayed out as the score remained frozen at 3-0 to the end.

The Peninsula College women will also host an exhibition game against St. Martin’s at 1 p.m. April 22.