PORT ANGELES — Another soccer doubleheader, another sweep for Peninsula College at Wally Sigmar Field.
The Pirate men blanked Bellevue 4-0, while the women’s team beat the Bulldogs 4-1.
In Wednesday’s men’s match, eight Peninsula sophomores were playing their final regular-season game at Wally Sigmar Field against a Bellevue squad desperately trying to stay alive in the NWAACC West Division playoff race.
Sophomores Lachlan Bond, Mark Cottrell, Kalei Gallarde, Angel Guerra, Alex Martinez, Corbin May, Zachary Newton and Erick Urzua, who have put together the two most impressive back-to-back years in the history of the storied Peninsula College men’s soccer program, all started and contributed to the shutout win.
Martinez, a forward from Reno, Nev., continued his assault on the school’s career scoring mark with a pair of goals. With 47 goals, he trails Miguel Gonzalez by only two.
Martinez also leads the NWAACC in goals this season with 26.
Ash Apollon, who leads the conference in assists with 15 and is third in scoring, tallied his 15th goal of the season.
Urzua, from Portland, assisted on Apollon’s goal and both of Martinez’s. Urzua’s 10 assists this season puts him fourth in the conference.
Also scoring for Peninsula was Hugo Marques on a penalty kick in the 89th minute.
Guerra, a sophomore keeper from Wenatchee, earned his NWAACC-leading 10th shutout.
The undefeated Pirates allowed only two goals in the month of October, and recorded six shutouts.
The outgoing sophomores have compiled a 24-0-1 conference record and 40-1-3 overall record over the last two years. They are chasing their second NWAACC championship.
Peninsula (12-0-1, 18-0-2), ranked No. 1 in the NWAACC and 10th nationally, heads into the postseason with a 12-0-1 conference record and 18-0-2 overall.
The Pirates next host a quarterfinal playoff match on Saturday, Nov. 9, against the winner of next Wednesday’s first-round playoff between the second-place team in the North Division and the third-place team in the South Division.
Sixth-ranked Skagit Valley (8-3-1, 11-3-1) and seventh-ranked Edmonds (8-3-2, 8-7-2) are battling for the top spot in the North Division. The team that falls short will host Wednesday’s playoff game against either Chemeketa (5-6-1, 8-7-4) or Pierce (4-7-1, 4-9-2), who are fighting for second and third place in the South.
In September, Peninsula beat Pierce 9-0 and Chemeketa 3-0.
Women’s Soccer
Peninsula 4, Bellevue 1
PORT ANGELES — The top-ranked Peninsula women, West Division champions for the third straight season, went right to work dispatching third-place Bellevue.
The NWAACC’s 2012 Badan Player of the Year, Bri Afoa, had been quiet of late, at least by her standards, but she quickly made her presence known Wednesday.
Afoa scored just two minutes into the match off an assist by Alexandra Rojas-Ayala — and she added two more to secure the hat trick, assisted by Larkyn Nelson and Brenda Torres.
Afoa’s three goals move her into third place in the conference this year.
The goal of the match, however, came from Nelson, a freshman forward from Bellingham.
Nelson made a move on a Bellevue defender near the Northwest corner of the field, and right in front of NWAACC Executive Director Marco Azurdia, who was taking in the match.
With geometry working against her at an impossible angle, she drilled a shot from about 18 yards out that curled over the head of the Bulldogs’ goalkeeper and into the far corner of the net for the fourth goal of the match.
The Pirates, who improved to 15-0-0 and 16-2-0, will honor their 13 sophomores in their final regular season home match, set for noon on Saturday against Lower Columbia College.
The Peninsula women’s playoff picture is a bit more clear than the men’s.
The women will be at home Saturday, Nov. 9, against the winner of next Wednesday first-round match between sixth-ranked Whatcom (9-0-6, 10-1-6), the second-place finisher from the North, and most likely Clark (9-4-2, 9-8-3), the third-place team in the South.
The Pirates and Whatcom are the only two teams in the NWAACC that have yet to suffer a loss.
Peninsula has already played Clark once this season, with the Pirates blanking the Penguins 4-0 on Oct. 5.
