By Pierre LaBossierre
Peninsula Daily News
SEQUIM — Sequim continued its hot streak, steamrolling a North Kitsap team 5-0 that had beaten the Wolves earlier in the season, jumping into second place in the Olympic League 2A Division boys soccer standings in the process.
“We lost a heartbreaker to North Kitsap before (a 2-1 defeat on March 21). They came out with plenty of fire, they wanted to make up for it,” said coach Dave Brasher.
With the win, the Wolves gained three points, giving them 21 for the year in league, just two points behind first-place Kingston, whom Sequim beat once already earlier in the year for the Bucs’ only league loss of the season.
The North Kitsap game was scoreless for the first 25 minutes, but the Wolves struck with two goals in four minutes. Mike McAleer scored in the 25th minute with an assist from Ian Parker, then Adrian Funston scored the first of two goals in the 29th minute, with an assist from Ryan Tolberd.
Hayuk Minano hit North Kitsap with a crucial strike right at the 40th minute, a penalty kick goal to give the Wolves a 3-0 lead going into halftime.
Tolberd picked up a goal with an assist from Eli Gish in the second half. Brasher said Tolberd broke free of the North Kitsap defense with a spin move after getting control of a pass from Gish, then deked out the Vikings keeper to make it 4-0. Tolberd then picked up another assist late in the match on Funston’s second goal.
Liam Stevenson picked up the shutout in goal. Sequim tends to shuttle its goalkeepers, but with Navy Thomas-Brenske injured, Brasher said Stevenson started out the match so well that he kept him in for the whole game.
Sequim (7-2-0, 8-3-2, 21 points,) plays Port Angeles (6-3-0, 9-3-1, 19 points) at 6:45 Tuesday at Civic Field in Port Angeles. Both teams will make the postseason, so now they are playing for seeding, with both teams having legitimate shots at the league title.
Record watch
Sequim’s Liam Harris didn’t score any goals in the North Kitsap match and remains tied for first all-time with Kai Antrim for 40 career goals for the Wolves.
Forks 3, Elma 0
FORKS — The Spartans soccer squad remained undefeated and on track for an Evergreen 1A championship with an efficient senior night win.
Oscar Gonzalez had a goal and two assists in Friday’s match, while Luis Perez had a goal and an assist. William Jeronimo-Pablo also scored a goal for the Spartans.
It was Forks’ sixth shutout of the year. In fact, the Spartans have given up just seven goals in 10 matches, three of them in a unusual wind-fueled match in Coupeville.
Forks outshot Elma 15-6. Coach Joe Morton said the Spartans actually seemed a bit flat in the first half, though they took a 2-0 lead into the break. He said ball control was the name of this game, with the Spartans possessing the ball at least 70 percent of the time.
Morton said soccer is catching on with the Forks kids, with a pep band playing in the hallways before the game and fireworks being shot off after every goal. He described it as a football game-type atmosphere on the West End.
“We had the biggest crowd I’ve seen in a while,” he said.
Forks is one win from locking up a share of the league championship. The Spartans now have an unusual 12-day break caused partly by Tenino being forced to disband its soccer program for this season. Forks (4-0-0, 9-0-1) plays again on the road against Montesano (0-3, 0-8-2) on May 1.
Port Angeles 10, Olympic 0
PORT ANGELES — The Roughriders soccer squad easily blanked a shorthanded Olympic team 10-0 at Civic Field to remain in the playoff hunt in a very competitive Olympic League 2A Division.
The Roughriders nearly got three hat tricks in Friday’s match. Ben Schneider scored three goals to give him 19 for the year. Erik Alvarez, playing in just the second half, scored three goals in his best match of the year and Stuart Methner added two goals. Andrew Methner and Aron Trubow added a pair of scores for the Riders.
Stuart Methner added a pair of assists while Aldair Ramirez, Kenny Soule, Cameron Butler, Schneider, Shawn Flanigan, Trubow and Garrett Mahaney all added assists.
This was the seventh shutout of the year for the Riders. Lorenzo DeLeTorre actually had to work hard for the shutout in goal as he was forced to make two saves on a penalty kick late in the match. Coach Chriss Saari also gave a lot of credit to Andrew St. George for quarterbacking the starters and reserves from the midfield position to help preserve the shutout.
Saari named Alvarez his offensive player of the match, Butler and De La Torre his defensive players of the day and Stuart Methner, Flanigan and Schneider is transition players of the match.
The win sets up a huge match for the Riders on Tuesday. Port Angeles (6-3-0, 9-3-1, 19 points) hosts a red-shot Sequim team (7-2-0, 8-3-2, 21 points) that has won five straight league games and has vaulted into second place in the Olympic League 2A Division. The last time Sequim lost in league, it was to Port Angeles, 4-0 on March 24. The Wolves and Riders played again a couple of weeks ago in a non-league friendly, tying 4-4.
Since this is a league match, there will be no draws. Sequim and Port Angeles will both make the postseason, so they are battling for playoff seeding and a shot at a league championship. Port Angeles sits in fourth place, four points behind Kingston, while Sequim is in second, just two points behind the first-place Buccaneers.
The Port Angeles-Sequim game will begin at 6:45 p.m.
Lonnie Archibald/for Peninsula Daily News Forks senior Samuel Gomez, right, kicks the ball backward during Forks’ 3-0 senior night victory over Elma.
