BELLINGHAM — Two college soccer powerhouses, the 2016 NCAA Division II national champion Western Washington University Vikings and the 2016 Northwest Athletic Conference champion Peninsula Pirates, met for a spring scrimmage at Harrington Field in Bellingham on Sunday where the Pirates did something few teams have done in recent years — beat the Vikings.
Western is one of the top NCAA Division II women’s soccer teams in the nation. In 2016-17, the Vikings had a two-year, 39-game winning streak that ended in October. It was the fourth-longest win streak in NCAA Division II history. It ended in October, but the Vikings went on to a sixth straight trip to the NCAA Division II Tournament.
The Pirates, meanwhile, went unbeaten this past fall, before falling in overtime in the NWAC championship match in November to another unbeaten team, Highline. They were ranked No. 4 in the nation among junior colleges at the time.
“It was an honor that Western invited [Peninsula head coach] Kanyon [Anderson] and his team up for a friendly,” said Rick Ross, associate dean for athletics and student life. “It speaks to how highly regarded our soccer program has become.”
To be fair, it wasn’t a regular season match and the Vikings beat the University of British Columbia 2-1 in a scrimmage that preceded our match on Sunday afternoon, but they have a large and talented roster (30 players) and it was a great test for our Pirates.”
Peninsula sophomore Malia Brudvik of Auburn opened the scoring when she squared up on a ball that was 30 yards out and blasted it through the outstretched hands of Western goalkeeper Hillary O’Connor of Los Angeles for a 1-0 Pirate lead just 10 minutes into the match.
The Pirates then went up 2-0 with 26 minutes remaining in the first half. Janis Martinez-Ortiz put a corner kick on goal, the ball was knocked away by O’Connor, but Pirate Samantha Guzman, a redshirt freshman from Corona, Calif., went high in the air to boot it past three Viking defenders and into the Western net.
Western’s best opportunity to score came with a minute to play in the first half when Talia Daigle, a freshman from Edmonds, slipped into the left side of the box and took a shot at close range, but Peninsula’s freshman keeper Kassidy Zinda laid out for the ball and knocked it wide to preserve the shutout.
“Western had more possession and we had to stay patient and organized in defense which we did,” said Anderson. “That is not something we get to practice often during the season, so to play a completely different style successfully says a lot about this group’s maturity.”
Anderson also praised the play of his defense, who helped Zinda earn the shutout.
“Our defenders were great. Sam Guzman and Halle Watson kept us organized, Mailia Brudvik, Emelie Small and Pi’ilani Chaves were great at the outside back, and Sarah Reiber covered a lot of ground and made big plays all game at defensive midfield,” he said.
“Shantel Torres-Benito had her best game as a Pirate and was key to our success,” he added. Torres-Benito, along with Maddy Parton, Taylor Graham and Jordyn DiCintio, are all returning players and put pressure on the Viking back line the entire night.
Pirate fans will have one more opportunity to see this team when Peninsula hosts the Seattle Stars and Western Oregon University at the Rumble in the Rainforest on April 28 at Sigmar Field on the Peninsula College campus.
