By Michael Carman
Peninsula Daily News
TUKWILA — Peninsula poured in four goals and stymied the Chemeketa Storm defensively to earn a 4-0 NWAC Championship semifinal shutout victory Saturday and advance to the first men’s soccer title game since 2015.
The Pirates (17-1-2) will face Tacoma (17-0-1) or Columbia Basin (13-3-3) for the championship at 2 p.m. today.
Against Chemeketa, Peninsula had a plan in mind offensively.
“We had a game plan in how we approached the game and tried to get the win and I think we executed quite well,” Pirates head coach Jake Hughes said.
“Chemeketa like to play out the back and build out of the back with their keeper, we wanted to press them high up the field and force turnovers and turn their strength into a weakness.”
Peninsula did make things difficult in close for the Storm on Saturday, but the Pirates’ first goal came via counterattack in the 21st minute.
Manny Lopez-Morales cleared the ball out of the Peninsula goal box and up to Nico Hernandez. Hernandez and Hide Inoue worked the give-and-go game to perfection on one of the finest goals of the season as Inoue finished to the left post.
“That is combinations in practice we work on, the one-touch,” Hernandez said in the post-game interview. “It just felt right in the moment. First touch, first touch, it was a domino effect.
“That was a great goal,” Hughes said. “Hide and Nico combined really well for the first goal.”
Hernandez scored the next goal 12 minutes later. Lopez-Morales threw the ball in on a side out and it was headed backward by Chunghwan Lee to Hernandez in front of goal, who promptly tapped it in for a 2-0 lead.
Mason Haubrich converted a penalty early in the second half and Jonathan De Motta sent home a rocket of a left-to-right strike to cap the win in style in the 63rd minute.
“That was a nice hit. He strikes the ball really clean and true. He’s been working so hard, he and Theo [Baiye] and its nice for him to be rewarded with a goal,” Hughes said of De Motta’s score.
“There was a good variety of goals and goal scorers.”
Hernandez was overjoyed to see the Pirates through to the finals.
“It’s been a real drought for us,” Hernandez said. “We haven’t been to the finals since 2015. It’s just unbelievable. We work so hard in practice at times you feel like giving up, but we kept going, kept pushing through adversity and I’m very happy.”
Hughes said the team celebrated the win, but knows it has work left to do.
“We are kind of living in the moment in the moment,” Hughes said. “Keeping in mind we have another game [today]. “We didn’t celebrate the Wenatchee [quarterfinal] game too much. As soon as that one was over they said ‘We have two more [wins] to go.’”
Photo courtesy Peninsula College The Peninsula College men’s soccer team celebrates after winning its NWAC Championship semifinal 4-0 over Chemeteka on Saturday. The men will play for the title at 2 p.m. today.
Photo courtesy Peninsula College Peninsula’s Mason Haubrich, left, runs down the ball, during the Pirates’ 4-0 NWAC semifinal win over Chemeketa on Saturday. Haubrich converted a penalty kick in the second half to put the game out of reach.
