SPRINGFIELD, Ore. — The Peninsula College women’s soccer team opened the regular season with three shutouts in less than 30 hours at the Northwest Athletic Conference Friendlies at Willamalane Center for Sports and Recreation over the weekend.
The Peninsula men, meanwhile, played Walla Walla to a 0-0 draw and then lost 3-2 to defending NWAC champion Highline.
The Peninsula women’s trick was taking early leads with quick scores.
A pair of freshmen scored goals and Manaia Siania-Unutoa recorded her first shutout of the season in the Pirates’ 2-0 over Treasure Valley on Saturday.
Myu Ban scored Peninsula’s first goal of the season in the fifth minute and then set up Ellie Small for another goal in the 33rd minute.
Siania-Unutoa, the Pirates’ only goalkeeper with prior college experience, had two saves.
Peninsula then played two games Sunday, defeating Columbia Basin 3-0 before wearing out the back of the net in an 11-0 rout of Grays Harbor.
The Pirates again scored early against Columbia Basin when Bianca Andrade set up Kendall Howell in the 12th minute.
Six minutes later, Lexi Krieger tallied the first of her three goals on the day to put Peninsula ahead 2-0.
Paige Mahuka scored the Pirates’ first second-half goal of the season in the 88th minute off an assist by Cierra Hamilton.
Siania-Unutoa again made two saves to earn the shutout.
In the final game, Peninsula and Grays Harbor played 13 minutes of scoreless soccer before the floodgates opened with a four-goals-in-five-minutes barrage by the Pirates.
Krieger scored in the 14th minute and again in the 16th minute, both goals being set up by Smalls.
In the 17th minute, Coby Yoshimura’s pass led to a goal for Tasha Inong, and one minute later, Krieger returned an earlier favor by setting up Small for her second goal of the season.
Krieger finished with three goals and an assist, and Small added three assists to her two scores.
The Pirates paced themselves, relatively speaking, the remainder of the half, scoring goals in the 27th minute (Inong), 30th minute (Brenda Torres-Hernandez) and 45th minute (Bri Jackson-Vallente) to lead 7-0 at half.
In the second half, Mahuka scored goals in the 57th and 70th minutes to give her three in the young season.
Michelle Whan scored in the 59th minute and Bianca Andrade found the net in the 68th minute.
“We scored some fantastic goals in that one and had a chance to work on some of our offensive concepts,” Peninsula coach Kanyon Anderson said.
“Games like that can be great for the confidence and for establishing some coordination in attack.”
Peninsula freshman goalkeeper Cicely Warnick made one save to earn her first career shutout.
The final damage for the weekend is 16 goals scored for the Pirates and zero goals allowed. The defense appears to have picked up where it left off in 2014 when it only allowed four goals all season.
“This group seems to have a strong commitment to being their best and to enjoying the process,” Anderson said.
“We have now given up four goals in our last 26 games against NWAC competition.”
Rough slate for men
The Peninsula men were given a brutal draw but performed admirably in their two games at the NWAC Friendlies.
The Pirates played Walla Walla, the 2014 East Region champion, to a scoreless draw Saturday and then went toe-to-toe with the defending champions before falling on a late goal Sunday.
Highline got on the board early when Tino Lopez-Slish scored in the sixth minute.
Both defenses tightened up for the remainder of the first half, and the Thunderbirds held a 1-0 lead at intermission.
Peninsula sophomore Eddie Benito evened the score in the 51st minute off an assist by Demar Stewart.
Highline retook the lead on a goal by Christian Soto-Gonzalez in the 66th minute.
The Pirates again tied the game, this time with a goal by Santi Sierra in the 76th minute.
The tie held for 11 minutes. It was broken when Soto-Gonzalez tallied his second goal, the game-winner, with three minutes left in regulation.
Freshman goalkeeper Nick Johnson made four saves for Peninsula.
In Saturday’s opener, Johnson earned his first career shutout and made five saves.
Cardinals up next
The Pirate men’s tough schedule continues this Saturday when they host North Idaho (2-0), the team that eliminated them from the NWAC championships in the quarterfinal round last year.
The game kicks off at 2 p.m. at Wally Sigmar Field.
It follows the Peninsula women’s matchup with North Idaho (1-1) at noon.
