PORT ANGELES — The Peninsula College men and women combined for 13 goals in a pair of lopsided soccer wins over Edmonds at Wally Sigmar Field.
The women routed the injury-plagued Tritons 9-1 on Wednesday, and the men followed with a 4-0 shutout.
The wins wrap up the second of three rounds of Northwest Athletic Conference North Division play.
Both Peninsula teams sit atop the division, but the women currently share that top spot. The Pirates are 9-1-0 in conference play and 14-1-0 overall, tied with Everett (9-1-0, 11-2-1) and 14 points ahead of Shoreline (4-5-1, 6-6-2).
The Peninsula men (7-1-2, 9-2-3) moved into sole possession of first place Wednesday, two points ahead of Whatcom (6-1-3, 7-2-3) following the Orcas’ 1-1 tie with Shoreline. Skagit Valley (4-4-2, 4-6-2) is third.
Peninsula kicks off the final round of North Division play against Shoreline’s teams at home Saturday on “Rally Day” at Wally Sigmar Field.
Fans at the match will be treated to a free Pirate rally towel.
The women’s game starts at noon, and the men follow at 2 p.m.
Women’s Match
Peninsula 9, Edmonds 1
The Peninsula women were expecting another battle from Edmonds following the teams’ last meeting in which the Pirates scored two late goals to break out of a close match and win 3-0 on the Tritons’ turf.
Edmonds, however, had even more players out with injuries than the Pirates — and they don’t have Peninsula’s depth.
Pirates head coach Kanyon Anderson was able to play every active player on his roster in a match that was all Peninsula from the opening kickoff.
Ellie Small finished with a hat trick and added two assists, and Lexi Krieger scored a pair of goals.
The Pirates’ other goals came from Coby Yoshimura, Hoku Afong, Paige Mahuka and Audrey Barham.
Perhaps the most impressive performance, however, came from freshman midfielder Myu Ban, who dished out five assists in limited playing time.
Anderson said Ban’s five assists “may be a single-game record, although we don’t have the stat kept officially.”
Other assists came from Karen Corral and Paige Mahuka.
Manaia Siania-Unutoa and Cicely Warnick split time in goal, holding the Tritons to one goal.
“We played well tonight with a good motivation to get into the attack with a sense of purpose,” Anderson said.
“We have been a bit passive at times in front of the goal this season, but we seem to have turned a corner in our attacking play.”
Men’s Match
Peninsula 4, Edmonds 0
Peninsula head coach Cale Rodriguez opened the match with a very different starting lineup, and it paid off.
The Pirates’ reserves stepped up and took it to the Tritons, pushing the themselves back to the top of the North Division after going scoreless in their last two matches.
Despite only three conference wins, Edmonds is no pushover.
The two teams battled in the center of the field for 44 minutes before the Pirates found the net on a goal by Keo Ponce that was assisted by Steven Moreno for a 1-0 lead at halftime.
The Pirates made it 2-0 on a goal by Joe Sorensen, also assisted by Moreno, just six minutes into the second half.
Peninsula then added insurance tallies on a second goal by Ponce, his team-leading eighth goal of the season, which was assisted by Sorensen, and a late goal by Eddie Benito that was assisted by Jonathan Vasquez.
Nick Johnson recorded the shutout, his NWAC-leading seventh of the season.
