COLLEGE SOCCER: Peninsula College teams have returning players ready to take on bigger roles

PORT ANGELES — Larkyn Nelson was taken out of the game right after she scored the go-ahead goal for Peninsula College in Sunday’s NWAACC women’s soccer championship game.

Pirates coach Kanyon Anderson replaced the freshman forward with the more experienced Kelsie Ng, who Anderson said is “maybe the smartest tactical player I’ve ever coached.”

On Nelson’s way to the bench, Anderson gave her a hug and a message.

“I told her, ‘You are going to score so many goals for us next year,’” Anderson told the Peninsula Daily News.

“I think we just saw a flash of what she can be.”

Wednesday afternoon, there will be a public celebration at Peninsula College for the Pirate soccer teams and the historic feat the Pirate soccer teams accomplished last weekend, becoming the first NWAACC school to win back-to-back women’s and men’s soccer championships.

Then, basketball takes center stage on the portion of Lauridsen Boulevard east of the bridge replacement project.

The question of whether or not the soccer teams could both repeat has been answered, and now is replaced with: Can they go back-to-back-to-back in 2014?

But, first, there are a lot of sub-questions for the men’s and women’s soccer teams to answer.

For starters, who will score?

Next year, there are goals to be had on both squads.

The women lose not only the program’s all-time leader in goals, Bri Afoa (45 goals), but also it’s No. 3 career scorer Shelbi Vienna-Hallam (13) and fifth-place scorers, Annie Armstrong and Bronte Fitzsimmons (11 goals apiece).

Fitzsimmons, in only one year with the program, also is Peninsula’s career leader in assists with 23.

The men lose Alex Martinez, whose total of 49 goals is tied for the most in program history.

Also graduating is Erick Urzua, who is tenth in Pirate history in goals (12) and third in assists (21).

Statistically, the men’s team has a more accomplished scorer returning next year.

Ash Apollon was fourth in the NWAACC in scoring with 16 goals, which is tied for fifth on the schools career list, and led the conference with 15 assists, which equals a school single-season record.

The Pirate women have Nelson and Mary Pierce, who were tied for fourth on the team with seven goals apiece.

Will increased playing time and an extra year of experience be enough for Nelson or Pierce, or another Pirate, to score the 22 and 23 goals Afoa had in her two seasons in Port Angeles?

Anderson is confident in Nelson and Pierce’s offensive abilities, as well as those of Alyssa Bertuleit, Brenda Torres and Alexandra Rojas-Ayala.

But Anderson said the team doesn’t need to score 89 goals in 22 games to win a championship.

“Maybe we won’t be as high-powered an offense,” he said.

“You don’t need to average four goals a game. It’s nice if you can, but it’s not required.”

It could be that the 2014 Pirates will be masters of winning 1-0 or 2-1 matches.

But while goal scorers like Afoa and Fitzsimmons are difficult to find, that doesn’t mean Peninsula won’t pick up where it left off this season.

The Pirates lose a lot, but they retain a lot, too.

“This freshman class that came in is, I can’t say they’re as good as the graduating class, because it’s incredible, but they could be that good,” Anderson said.

And, he said, there is usually a significant difference between a freshman and a sophomore in the NWAACC.

“Sometimes freshmen have a hard time stepping up,” Anderson said.

“But then they just blow up and become a bona fide star as a sophomore.”

One thing Anderson doesn’t expect is to find replacements for his sophomores in next year’s recruiting class.

“You don’t replace your sophomores,” he said.

“Your freshmen have to become those sophomores. You replace your freshmen.

“It’s unfair to say your going to replace the players who are leaving.

“I’m not going to go find another Bri, Bronte, Shelbi or Annie. If [incoming freshmen] were that good out of high school, they would have been recruited months and months ago [by four-year programs].”

Different GK situations

One position in which Anderson won’t need to fill a gaping void is goalkeeper.

The Pirates were third in the conference in shutouts, but didn’t have a keeper rank in the top 10 individually, because Emily Flinn, Laura Morgan and Kasie Lough split time in goal.

Flinn started in the final and semifinal, but Peninsula probabaly could have won with either of the three.

“We had the most competitive goalkeeping situation we’ve ever had with three really talented goalkeepers,” Anderson said.

“Emily is probably the calmest goalkeeper I’ve ever met. She just doesn’t get rattled.

“Honestly, I could have started any of three and the result would have been the same.

Only Morgan is graduating, and Anderson is high on Manaia Siania-Unutoa, who redshirted this season.

The men’s team, meanwhile, must replace Angel Guerra, who became the school’s single-season shutout record holder with his 12th of the season against Clark in the championship match.

But men’s coach Andrew Chapman appears to have found the tree on which great goalkeepers grow, as Guerra surpassed the mark of his predecessor, Guilherme Avelar, who equaled the mark of the keeper whom he replaced, Jared Wilson.

Replacing defense

Both teams relied heavily on a largely sophomore defense this season.

The women had the likes of Vienna-Hallam, Misty Kaiwi, Miranda Sochacki and Hailey Berg.

The men starters were Mark Cottrell, Lachlan Bond, Zachary Newton and Corbyn May.

But, as Chapman pointed out, many of this year’s eight starting sophomores saw limited time as freshmen, so both squads should have players just waiting their turn to shine.