PORT ANGELES — Having been held down offensively by Sequim for the majority of the second half, the Port Angeles boys soccer team summoned some late-game heroics to escape with a 2-1 nonleague win over the Wolves on Saturday at Peninsula College.
The Roughriders put two goals past Sequim in the final five minutes at Wally Sigmar Field.
Miki Andrus started the comeback for the Roughriders after Tim Schneider put pressure on Wolves goalkeeper Austin Wagner.
Schneider attempted a shot that Wagner saved but was unable to control.
Andrus ran on and tapped the ball through the box for the tying goal in the 76th minute.
“The goalie was losing it and so I just ran up to try and tap it, and he still didn’t have it when I got to him so I just got a foot on it in time and it went in,” Andrus said.
Three minutes later, Port Angeles defender Josef Sollmann was elbowed down on a 50-50 ball in the box, and the Riders were awarded a penalty kick just before the final whistle.
Schneider then soundly fired the penalty attempt to the lower-left part of the goal past Wagner for the winning margin.
“I was surprised,” Andrus said of the comeback.
“But we kept digging toward the end. We kind of had a feeling we might lose, but we kept our heads up and kept playing.”
Those scoring chances were all Port Angeles could muster offensively in the second half, as the Wolves controlled play and had the ball in the Riders’ half of the field for much of the final 40 minutes.
“We noticed in the first half that Port Angeles was really controlling the ball in midfield, so we moved one of our defenders up and it really did seem to work for us in the second half,” Sequim coach Dave Brasher said.
“Those two shots were the first shots we had allowed all half.”
The Riders and Wolves played to a scoreless draw in the first half, each team managing only three shots on goal.
Port Angeles had the better of the early opportunities. In the 18th minute, Andrus beat a Sequim defender on a high bouncer in the box, and was able to get a good strike on the ball with his left foot, only to see the shot miss just right of the goal.
Later, Port Angeles’ Vincent Ioffrida sent a free kick into the middle of the goal box, and Angel Rivero was there to head the ball just over the goal post.
The Wolves broke through on the scoreboard first, when Adrian Espinoza sent a clean shot from right to left across the goal and into the upper left corner of the goal in the 56th minute.
Sequim kept control of the ball for the next 20 minutes but couldn’t add an insurance goal, leaving the door open for the comeback.
The two rivals will have two more opportunities against each other in Olympic League play this season.
“A good amount of guys on our team and on PA play on the same fall league team, so this is a pretty fun rivalry,” Brasher said.
“The games should be pretty close.”
Sequim (1-0-1) visits Port Angeles (2-0) for a game at Civic Field at 12:45 p.m. this Saturday.
Port Angeles 2, Sequim 1
Sequim 0 1 — 1
Port Angeles 0 2 — 2
Scoring Summary
Second Half: 1, Sequim, Adrian Espinoza, 56th. 1, Port Angeles, Miki Andrus, 76th. 2, Port Angeles, Tim Schneider PK, 79th.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-452-2345, ext. 5250 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
