PORT ANGELES — He may not be able to match his older sister Briana’s two championship rings, but Trevan Estrellado may yet tone down her trash talk.
Estrellado sent a laser beam of a free kick past Walla Walla goalkeeper Francisco Flores in the 55th minute to give the Peninsula College men all they needed offensively.
And the Pirates’ defense stood tall to preserve the shutout in a 1-0 Northwest Athletic Conference quarterfinal soccer victory Saturday at Wally Sigmar Field.
“I’ve been practicing my free kicks all season and since my freshman year, really,” Estrellado said.
“It’s something that I take a lot of pride in and put a lot of work in to.
“I set the ball down and I saw the keeper take a step toward his near post, so I told myself to shoot far [post].”
Now Estrellado and his Peninsula teammates are two wins from a championship.
Briana Estrellado won titles in 2012 and 2013 with the Peninsula College women’s soccer team — and she lets him know about it.
“Her two years here she won titles, so now I’m hoping it’s my turn to get a ring — crossing my fingers,” Estrellado said.
“It’s a family joke that we have. She rubs it in my face.”
The Pirates (14-3-3) will face Chemeketa in the NWAC semifinals at 6 p.m. Saturday at Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila.
Such a rosy scenario wasn’t out of reach but looked difficult for Peninsula to fulfill after the Warriors controlled much of the play in a scoreless first half.
“I think tensions were high, it’s the playoffs, and Walla Walla came out and looked good,” first-year Pirates head coach Cale Rodriguez said.
“They had the better of the first half.
“I told the guys at halftime we have 45 minutes to change it. We made some slight tactical adjustments, just responding to what they were looking to do.
“And that really created some opportunities for us to advance the game offensively. And it took one special goal to put us through.”
The first half wasn’t a matter of the Pirates playing poorly, but more of the Warriors putting forth a consistent, focused attack focused on super sub Emilio Meraz-Rodriguez.
“Number seven for them [Meraz-Rodriguez], my God, what a great player; we had to get him under wraps a little bit,” Rodriguez said.
“And their holding midfielder and center forward were just having too much time on the ball and were creating a lot of problems.”
Estrellado said Rodriguez elicited emotion from his team at halftime.
“Coach told us, ‘It doesn’t matter the name on your jersey, or where you are from, it’s a matter of how much passion and how much heart you are going to give today.’
“And that’s what we’ve been working for. We’ve been going hard all season in training and we worked to change the game.”
Peninsula changed out of its standard 4-4-2 diamond formation after the break in a bid to narrow the field and slow down Walla Walla’s attack.
“We switched our diamond from a 4-4-2 diamond to a 4-3-2-1, and changed the responsibilities of our midfielders and our second striker a little bit,” Rodriguez said.
“And with those changes we were able to get a little more possession of the ball, find some pockets and some spaces, and were able to manage them on the defensive side and limit their offensive chances.”
The difference was notable early in the second half.
Instead of chasing the ball and fighting to retain possession or clear chances away from goal as in the first half, the Pirates began to build up steam moving forward offensively.
And the Peninsula defense maintained its stout play in the second half.
“Defensively, we were fantastic,” Rodriguez said.
“The back line was tremendous, Nick Johnson in goal was tremendous. And ultimately it was a special goal that got us the win, but collectively as a unit the defensive effort was what it needed to be to withstand them, and that’s why we are moving on to the Final Four.”
Johnson was a standout in goal, tip-saving a certain goal over the bar in the first half and making another close cover-up in the second half to earn his NWAC-leading 10th shutout on the season.
He had help from well-timed challenges from defenders Dermarr Stewart, Sierra Santi, Jose Soto, Manny Medina and Jared Ortiz.
With about 10 minutes to play, the Pirates started to chew clock, playing the ball deep into the corners offensively and taking time on every goal kick and throw-in.
“It’s different every game,” Rodriguez said of playing to protect a one-goal lead.
“We felt comfortable in how we were playing that we didn’t need to go for another goal, but we wanted to press them and force them into some tough passes, and ultimately try to kill the game and manage the game as much as possible.
“I think we did a pretty good job of that.”
Rodriguez reinserted co-captain Eddie Benito with five minutes to play to man the midfield and help hold possession and essentially play keep-away from the Warriors.
Walla Walla did get one last chance during an uncomfortably long six-minute-plus stoppage time at the end of regulation.
A free kick attempt at the top of the 18-yard box by Walla Walla’s Francisco Sanchez went wide left, and Peninsula held on to the victory.
It will be the Pirates’ fifth trip to the NWAC Final Four in the past six years.
Peninsula brought back titles in 2010, 2012 and 2013.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-452-2345, ext. 5250 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
