PORT ANGELES — In a wide-open back-and-forth high-scoring affair, North Kitsap’s speed proved to be a little too much in a close, hard-fought 4-3 win over the Port Angeles girls soccer team in a loss that denied the Roughriders a share of first place.
There could have easily been 10 or 12 goals in the offensive game, with several shots going just high or wide or hitting crossbars.
Despite the loss, the Port Angeles girls find themselves in a three-way tie for second in the Olympic League 2A Division at 4-2 with Sequim and North Kitsap. Sequim and Port Angeles are tied with 12 points (and Port Angeles currently holds a tiebreaker over Sequim because of a head-to-head win). North Kitsap has 11 points.
First-place Olympic (5-1) has 15 points.
“North Kitsap had a lot of speed that gave us trouble,” said coach Scott Moseley.
The Vikings used a fairly simple strategy all game … “dump and chase” into the offensive zone with their speedy forward Charlotte Bond wreaking havoc by being able to outrace Riders defenders to loose balls. Bond ended up scoring two goals as she caused problems all game long.
The Riders tried the same long-pass strategy and it worked a couple of times, but not as often as it did for the Vikings.
“We weren’t able to execute it as well as they were,” Moseley said.
Port Angeles, however, took control of the match early and threatened to blow the Vikings out. Just five minutes in, the Riders scored after a free kick from Shanzi Cosgrove. Kyrsten McGuffey crossed Cosgrove’s kick to Sierra Robinson, who kicked it in for a goal.
In the ninth minute, Port Angeles scored again.
Emilia Long crossed to Lola DelGuzzi-Flores, who scored to give the Riders what seemed to be a commanding lead at 2-0.
“We came out fired up,” Moseley said.
North Kitsap roared back, though, putting Port Angeles back on its heels with frontline speed. Bond’s constant pressure resulted in a scored in the 15th minute for the Vikings.
The Riders got that goal back quickly after Long stole the ball on a North Kitsap pass and got it to McGuffey, who kicked the ball in for a score in the 19th minute.
The Vikings responded with a goal in the 26th minute to make it 3-2. The game went back and forth for the next 14 minutes with rapid-fire changes of momentum. North Kitsap hit a crossbar minutes later, then Robinson got behind the Vikings’ defense on a run and had a wide open shot that went wide off the left post, then minutes later, North Kitsap had a shot that barely missed high. A couple of minutes later, a Cosgrove free kick outside the penalty area hit the crossbar.
Port Angeles goalie Bonnie Sires made a great save near the end of the half to keep it 3-2, but moments later, Bond scored her second goal to knot the game at 3-3.
It was that kind of breathless first half with constant shots and action at both ends.
The second half settled down a bit as both teams tightened up their defenses. Long beat several defenders on a solo run and hit the crossbar on a shot early on.
Now it was the Vikings’ Isla Lester’s turn to play dump and chase and she ran down a long pass, got behind the Riders’ defense and scored to give North Kitsap its first lead of the match at 4-3 in the 57th minute. Both teams had a couple of golden scoring opportunities left, including a Long shot that went just over the net late, but that was the end of the goal-scoring.
The Riders (4-2, 5-4) get a chance to rest up with a home game at 6:45 p.m. today in a nonleague game against Coupeville.
Port Angeles is back in league play Tuesday at home against Kingston.
