{"id":109951,"date":"2010-04-25T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-25T07:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/news\/sports-port-angeles-boys-soccer-team-beats-sequim-for-the-first-time-in-six-years\/"},"modified":"2018-10-15T12:41:33","modified_gmt":"2018-10-15T19:41:33","slug":"sports-port-angeles-boys-soccer-team-beats-sequim-for-the-first-time-in-six-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/sports\/sports-port-angeles-boys-soccer-team-beats-sequim-for-the-first-time-in-six-years\/","title":{"rendered":"SPORTS: Port Angeles boys soccer team beats Sequim for the first time in six years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SEQUIM &#8212; Svetlio Hurd&#8217;s post-goal celebration said it all.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>So did the look of relief on Port Angeles boys soccer coach Chris Saari&#8217;s face after his team&#8217;s Olympic League match against Sequim came to an end.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Hurd bent in a dramatic corner kick goal in the 65th minute of Friday night&#8217;s showdown of archrivals, vaulting the Riders to a 1-0 victory that was six years in the making.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Players rushed onto the field in a wild celebration after the final whistle blew, jumping up and down in a circle and hugging each other as if they had just won the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>To Hurd, a four-year senior who has endured dozens of losses with the Riders, it almost was.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>The supposed &#8220;Curse of Chris Saari&#8221; had come to an end.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>&#8220;This was like the Super Bowl for me,&#8221; Hurd said. &#8220;It feels really great.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>&#8220;Sequim is a hard team to play. We&#8217;ve lost to them a lot in my four years here. I&#8217;m just happy we won this year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>So, too, was Saari.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Not only was it his first win against the Wolves in his six years as Rider head coach, it was also a critical victory for his team&#8217;s playoff chances.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Port Angeles (3-3-1 in league, 4-7-1 overall) moved within two points of the Olympic Trojans for the league&#8217;s third and final 3A playoff spot with the win.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>If the Riders can somehow pass Olympic, they could earn the team&#8217;s first postseason bid since 2002.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve always found a way to lose against Sequim,&#8221; said Saari, whose best showing against the Wolves was a tie in 2007.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>&#8220;We finally got over the hump.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>&#8220;We played them strong [in a 2-1 loss earlier this season]. We&#8217;ve improved a lot, and it seems like they are struggling a little bit right now.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>&#8220;Sometimes it just goes your way. Today, it finally did.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Indeed, the Riders caught a bit of a break with Hurd&#8217;s goal.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>The senior midfielder said he was actually looking to center the ball for a header on goal.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Yet somehow his kick, a low line drive, bent around the post, deflected off Sequim goalkeeper Byron Boots&#8217; hands and bounced into the net.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>&#8220;I hoped someone was going to get a header, but it ended up going in,&#8221; Hurd said. &#8220;I&#8217;m happy. It&#8217;s a goal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Hurd immediately bolted toward the Rider sideline after the goal, raising his arms and pointing to his teammates as the Rider faithful went into a frenzy.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>&#8220;I just wanted to pump everyone up,&#8221; Hurd said of the celebration.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>The goal capped a furious attack for Port Angeles that saw a pair of shots hit the post, one in the first half from Luis Neumeier and another in the second by Anthony Brandon.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Sequim (3-4, 6-4) had a few near misses of its own.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Junior forward Nick Camporini&#8217;s breakaway shot went into the side of the net.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Michael Lee had a nice look at the goal a few minutes later on a Camporini centering pass, but Rider goalkeeper Jack Doryland swooped in to block the point blank shot at the last second.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>The Wolves mounted a spirited attack in the last 15 minutes as well.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>But their best chance, a long shot from Aldo Garcia in the 78th minute, deflected off the post and out of play.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>&#8220;I had the feeling we were going to get a goal,&#8221; Sequim coach Dave Brasher said. &#8220;We had some great chances.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>&#8220;We just didn&#8217;t seem to bring it as much as they did. That&#8217;s the best I&#8217;ve seen them play, the first 20 minutes of the second half where they were winning balls in the middle.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>The loss was the Wolves&#8217; third in a row, putting them at 2-4-0 since starting the season 4-0-0.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>&#8220;I think we&#8217;re still thinking we&#8217;re better than we are,&#8221; Brasher said. &#8220;We need to get back to basics and get our confidence back and get the feeling of being able to win again.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s like everything we try now is not working.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Sequim heads to Olympic on Tuesday, while the Riders host second-place Kingston on Monday night at Civic Field.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p \/>\n<p>Port Angeles 1, Sequim 0<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Port Angeles 0 1 &#8212; 1<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Sequim 0 0 &#8212; 0<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>Scoring Summary<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p>First half: No scoring.<\/p>\n<p \/>Second Half: 1, Port Angeles, Hurd, 65th minute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SEQUIM &#8212; Svetlio Hurd&#8217;s post-goal celebration said it all. So did the look of relief on Port Angeles boys soccer coach Chris Saari&#8217;s face after his team&#8217;s Olympic League match against Sequim came to an end. Hurd bent in a dramatic corner kick goal in the 65th minute of Friday night&#8217;s showdown of archrivals, vaulting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":581,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-109951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109951"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/581"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109951\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109951"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peninsuladailynews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=109951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}