PORT ANGELES — Peninsula College men’s and women’s soccer teams are well-represented on the NWAC North-West Region All-Star teams, with six women and five men on each team.
Pirates coach Kanyon Anderson, who coached both the men’s and women’s teams this year, earned co-coach of the Year honors along with Tacoma head coach Jason Gjertsen.
Winning All-Star spots for the West Division champion Peninsula women are forward Alyssa Bertuleit, midfielders Paxton Rodocker and Brittney Yoshimura, defender Kamryn Barney and goalkeeepers Emily Flinn and Kasie Lough.
All are sophomores for the NWAC semifinal-qualifying Pirates.
For the co-West Division champion men, All-Star nods were given to freshman forward Eddie Benito, and sophomores Kaio Maciel at forward, Kassio Monteiro and Keevan Webb in midfield and defender Brodi Keefe.
Women’s All-Stars
Bertuleit has scored five goals and has 10 assists this season.
“She sure runs well and she’s one of those kids where there are a lot of good players out there but teams have to adjust their approach to her,” Anderson said.
Rodocker, a Port Angeles High School product, totaled three goals and eight assists.
“She’s tough and won the ball back for us a lot,” Anderson said.
“She did a nice job making simple passes to help us stay in possession. Her job is to get the ball and keep the ball, and any of those goals or assists is icing on the cake.
“People like to watch her play and she’s a great kid and people want to root for her.”
Yoshimura came up with four goals and seven assists.
“A really quick, creative player . . . an excellent dribbler that puts a lot of pressure on defenses,” Anderson said.
“Every time she has the ball, the potential is there for good things to happen for us.”
Barney anchored a Pirates defense that has allowed a league-low two goals all season.
“I think she’s the best defender in the league, and I really think she should have gotten consideration for West Region player of the year,” Anderson said.
“There’s no player more important to her team’s effort than Kamryn maybe in the entire NWAC.”
Flinn has six shutouts and 15 saves so far this year.
“Emily is very calm, very technical and positions herself before the shot better than any goalkeeper I’ve seen,” Anderson said.
Lough has seven shutouts and 18 saves on the season.
“Kasie is as good an athlete as we’ve ever had in the program,” Anderson said.
“She’s one of the two or three fastest players on the team and athletically like nobody I’ve ever coached before.”
Men’s honorees
Maciel, a team captain, led the Pirate men in scoring with 10 goals and two assists.
“Caio has a dangerous left foot and he scored big goals for us,” Anderson said.
“These weren’t meaningless goals. He’s a guy we could turn to when we needed a goal in big game.”
Benito added seven goals and four assists.
“He scored a lot of great goals and won the ball back for us many times,” Anderson said.
“He has great vision and is very clever and creative.”
Monteiro scored four goals and dished out three assists for Peninsula.
“He’s very strong, a good ball winner, and gave us a sense that we were going to control the midfield in every game,” Anderson said.
Webb, also a captain, assisted on a goal this season but his presence was felt in the defensive midfield.
“A workhorse for us,” Anderson said.
“Big, strong, fast, and did much of the defensive work from his central midfield spot.”
Keefe made sure the Pirates defensive line was in order.
“Brodi was our organizational and vocal leader back there,” Anderson said.
He was very strong in the air, winning headers for us.”
Anderson was honored by the praise of his fellow coaches.
“It’s nice, I’m flattered,” Anderson said.
“We started pretty strong, but we had a tougher second half and typically it goes to somebody whose team finished a little stronger.
“I shared it with Jason Gjertsen of Tacoma, and I thought he did a great job, so it’s cool to share it with him.”
Peninsula athletic director Rick Ross said he also was pleased with coach Anderson being honored.
“He is an outstanding coach,” Ross said. “It was very fitting that he win another Coach of the Year award. He worked very hard, not only to coach both teams this year, but also to complete the recruiting for the men’s team and to get them into a position to reach the playoffs and possibly repeat as NWAC champions. It didn’t play out that way, but that’s sports.”
The 11 Pirates are scheduled to compete in their respective All-Star games Sunday, pending the outcome of Saturday’s NWAC semifinals.
Should the Peninsula women win their 1 p.m. Saturday semifinal against Lane, they will advance to Sunday’s championship game and their six All-Stars will not play in the West-North vs. South-East Women’s NWAC All-Star Game, scheduled for a 10:30 a.m. kickoff at Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila.
The five Pirate men, however, will play in the men’s NWAC All-Star Game, which gets under way at 12:30 p.m.
Those All-Star games are followed by the women’s championship at 3 p.m. and the men’s title match at 5:30 p.m.
Anderson is scheduled to coach the men’s All-Star game, again, pending the outcome of Saturday’s women’s semifinal, along with Gjertsen of Tacoma and North Division Coach of the Year, Darren Bell of Skagit Valley.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5152 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
