PORT ANGELES — For the third year in a row, the Peninsula College men’s soccer team will be hunted by the rest of the Northwest Athletic Conference, but it makes no difference to a team that goes into every season expecting to win.
The Pirates will be defending their back-to-back NWAC championships with the nonconference season beginning at 2 p.m. Friday at Wally Sigmar Field against Rogue College.
It’s no surprise that the Pirates were named the No. 1 team in the NWAC in the coaches’ preseason poll, and by a huge margin. The Pirates got 150 points and 11 first-place votes. The second-most was by Highline with 91 points.
Coach Jake Hughes pointed out that Peninsula has won the NWAC title three out of the past five years. In fact, the Pirates have won an impressive seven NWAC titles since 2010, so the expectations are always there.
“I don’t think there’s any more or less pressure to win than last year or the year before or the year before,” Hughes said. “We’ll be competing this year for a championship the same as last year.”
The last NWAC team to win three straight titles was Skagit Valley, which won four straight from 1977 to 1980. That team was coached by Wally Sigmar, who later became the president of Peninsula College.
The Pirates lost a fair amount of firepower from last year, including NWAC Player of the Year Nil Grau, who scored 19 goals and had 50 points for the squad. He is now playing for Utah Valley University.
Also moving on to four-year schools were Konrad Mueller and Pau Vivas. Between these two and Grau, that is 31 goals that have graduated from Peninsula.
“Last year was a special group, there is no doubt in that. They’re continuing to perform well at their new schools. They weren’t just good players, they were good people,” Hughes said. He said with Peninsula being a two-year school, the nature of the program is that the team must continually replenish its roster.
The cupboard certainly isn’t bare. In fact, the Pirates bring back a huge goal-scorer in Ezrah Ochoa of Yakima. As a freshman, Ochoa tallied an impressive 14 goals and 35 points for the Pirates last year. His Davis High School teammate Edwin Diaz is also back and also will be expected to be a big scorer. This duo played for a Davis team in 2023 that finished third in the state among 4A schools.
Also returning is Austin Collins. Collins only had five goals in his freshman season, but he made his mark in the postseason as Grau missed a playoff game with a hamstring injury. Filling in as the Pirates’ lead striker, Collins showed his potential and explosiveness by responding with a pair of spectacular goals to beat Tacoma.
Hughes also expects more scoring from the team’s defensive players, in particular Jeremie Kuelo and Rei Sato.
“I expect them to contribute to our set pieces. I think more of our defenders will have to score on set pieces,” he said.
A couple of other newcomers that Hughes expects to contribute a lot this season are forward Jeremy Obah and midfielder Lovis Bienefeld.
The Pirates also will have to replace their two-year starter at goalkeeper, Laurin Lattow. The lead goalkeeper will be Max Woithe, a freshman and, like Lattow, from Germany.
Also on the roster as goalkeeper are two former Sequim High School players, Navy Thomas-Brenske and Nolan Valenzuela, who was named the defensive player of the year in the Olympic League. Valenzuela will redshirt this year.
“Navy is a very capable keeper. Nola has improved greatly in a short period of time,” Hughes said.
The Pirates have a third former Sequim player, defender Mekhi Ashby.
“Mekhi has had a good spring. He will contribute, and he has the potential to fight for a starting position,” Hughes said.
So far, the Pirates have played some exhibition scrimmages against the University of Victoria and the University of Puget Sound. After Friday’s game against Rogue, which counts in the league standings, they will have two more scrimmages scheduled at The Evergreen State College and Pacific Lutheran on Sept. 4. The Pirates then begin North Region play, hosting Skagit Valley Sept. 10.
Rogue should be a tough match as the Osprey are ranked No. 8 in the coaches’ poll.
Hughes said he hasn’t had a chance to see the other North teams yet, but the region is always one of the toughest in the NWAC. He suspects Everett will be tough, as well as Skagit Valley and Bellevue. Everett is fourth in the coaches’ poll, while Skagit is seventh and Bellevue ninth.
