SEQUIM — What did the Sequim boys soccer team do after setting a number of single-season school scoring records, winning 14 games and advancing to the state tournament quarterfinals in 2018?
They got weird with it this spring, according to longtime Wolves head coach Dave Brasher.
“It’s a good array of weirdness coming together,” Brasher said of his squad. “Once they get on the field they love each other. It’s a group of characters.”
In his 25th season along the Sequim sidelines, Brasher has coached his share.
“It reminds me of that 2004 team,” Brasher said of a group that went unbeaten in Nisqually League play to claim a league title and advanced to the state tournament. “Those guys all went their separate ways after practice, but when they showed up to practice they were all in for each other and I see that with this group.”
Despite losing the program’s all-time leading goal scorer and distributor (45 goals and 27 assists) results have been even better thus far for the 2019 Wolves. Sequim (14-0-2) hasn’t lost a game all season — including a 12-0 blitz through Olympic League play in which the Wolves scored 53 goals and yielded just 10.
“I think there’s just a bunch of different personalities, good personalities,” Wolves senior defender Chris Morgan said.
Senior Brandon Benson agreed.
“We have a wide diversity of people and I guess just bringing all our weirdness together makes us more of a family in a sense. Last year we weren’t as close with our teammates who graduated and this year there’s a closer bond with our younger teammates.
“You don’t need to change [who you are] for anybody else because there’s no judgment.”
Senior Rudy Franco agreed with his fellow defenders.
“It’s a safe zone for us,” he said. “We all come out and treat each other like brothers and come out to have fun.”
Sequim hopes the fun continues when its postseason run begins today against Washington (13-3-3) at 7:30 p.m. at Peninsula College’s Wally Sigmar Field.
Ryan Tolberd, who set the school’s single-season goal-scoring mark with 21 tallies last season, has 12 goals and eight assists thus far this spring. The junior seems likely to break 2018 grad Liam Harris’ 45-goal career scoring mark before he’s done in purple and gold.
Brasher said Tolberd has benefited — as has the entire team — from Belgian exchange student Mathys Tanche’s outstanding play. Tanche has a team-high 17 goals and nine assists so far.
“Without Mathys I think other teams could have keyed on Ryan Tolberd defensively,” Brasher said. “He’s quietly had a great year. And I agree with you, I think he will break that record, too.
“I think Ryan kind of likes being in the shadows, he is a quieter kid. The thing about Ryan and Mathys is they aren’t the kinds of forwards that are just standing up there and waiting for the ball, they go back and get it and make plays.”
And the rest of the team is more than capable of sharing and scoring the ball.
“The stats show it,” Brasher said. “We have a handful of goal scorers with right around five goals.”
This list includes junior Adrian Funston (five goals, eight assists); junior Mike McAleer (five goals, six assists); freshman Kristian Mingoy (four goals, two assists); senior Sean Weber (three goals, three assists); sophomore Eli Gish (three goals, two assists) and junior Reid Parker (two goals, six assists).
“We are not spread out with a bunch of guys with one or two goals,” Brasher said. “The wealth has been spread pretty decently and abundantly offensively.”
Brasher drew another comparison to that 2004 Sequim squad.
“Again, similar to that 2004 team, there are no weak spots,” Brasher said. “A lot of times you have a team where there is a drop-off at certain positions. But from top to bottom, each position has a player that can contribute.
Brasher had concerns about the team’s overall depth before the season started.
“The depth has been a nice surprise,” Brasher said. “We’ve been able to plug in some guys that I didn’t really think about that have done a good job in keeping the talent level up there.”
Brasher pointed to two freshmen — Mingoy as a speedy addition up top at forward and Brandon Wagner as a solid contributor to the team’s depth along the back line.
A couple of position shifts also have worked out in the Wolves’ favor.
McAleer has filled a big role as a more defensive-minded central midfielder.
“We didn’t really know exactly where he might play,” Brasher said. “We had Mike maybe up front with Ryan and whomever else, then Mathys looked like he might be the guy up there and has been.”
“And last year, Sean Weber played the defensive central midfielder role for us and was really a stable midfielder that stayed home and did all the dirty work. My take is Sean was super excited about his senior year this year and he wanted to attack more. And that was getting him out of position in our early games and he was not being the safety guy we needed.
“So moving Mike back into that role and moving Sean up to pair with Adrian has been key to making us really exciting.”
Franco, Benson and Morgan along with sophomore Eli Gish anchor a back line that also has been stout defensively in front of goalkeepers Navy Thomas-Brenske and Jordan Hurdlow.
“Navy is another kid that is busy with a lot of activities and he has done a great job in the back and Jordan has been a great backup,” Brasher said.
It’s been a season to remember for the Sequim boys soccer team. Mike McAleer, top left, and Ryan Tolberd celebrate scoring an early-season goal while teammates Reid Parker and Rodrigo Silva-Carrasco look on. (Michael Dashiell/Olympic Peninsula News Group)
