PORT ANGELES — The Northwest Athletic Conference championship cup will be in someone else’s trophy case this year, but that doesn’t change how dominant the Peninsula College men’s soccer team has been in the NWAC the past five years.
In that five-year period, the Peninsula men have amassed an 88-7-13 record. They have won five West Division championships, three NWAC championships and have been both regionally and nationally ranked.
Their 2014 season ended in the NWAC quarterfinals in a heartbreaking 2-0 loss to top-ranked North Idaho College on a small, muddy field in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, but it wasn’t without the normal Pirate accolades.
The Peninsula men went 10 straight games without a loss or tie, eventually finishing 13-2-4.
They were ranked No. 1 for most of the year and had slipped to No. 4 following their only regular season loss and a couple of ties. They also were ranked in the top 10 nationally for most of the year.
“It was a fantastic group of players this year,” head coach Kanyon Anderson said.
“The sophomores were good to each other and did a nice job of taking the freshmen under their wings. That bodes well for next year.”
The Pirates will graduate a very talented group of sophomores.
“Every single player in this group has the talent to move on to play at the next level,” Anderson said.
“I hope they do. It’s a special thing to get to be a college athlete and to be part of a team.”
That list of sophomores includes Dylan Clark, Sam Gaisford, Chris Galea, Brodi Keefe, Caio Maciel, Hugo Marques, Kassio Monteiro, Steve Rodriguez, Victor Sanchez, Julio Soto, Keevan Webb and Aaron Zavolokin.
“The sense of humor from the sophomores was one of my favorite elements,” Anderson said. “There was a lot of laughter around the field every day.”
There wasn’t a lot of laughter Saturday, however, after falling to Cardinals in the second round of the playoffs.
The Pirates set the bar very high, and despite their outstanding season, it ended two matches shy of their goal.
“We put ourselves in a tough situation by not winning the division outright when we had the chance,” Anderson said.
“We let a seven-point lead slip, ended up sharing the division title and lost a lottery-style tie-breaker, which sent us on the road for the quarterfinals.”
By tying for the West Division title, the Pirates had to win a First Round match and then travel in the second round — all the way to Coeur d’Alene.
Against the Cardinals, Peninsula struggled to maintain footing on a muddy NIC field, but they still managed to compete with the hosts for the entire match.
North Idaho got on the scoreboard in the 30th minute when Brady Ulen took a free kick into the box. Pirate goalkeeper Oscar Torres leapt into traffic to punch away the ball and was smashed.
With Torres on the ground, Alec Johnson volleyed the ball into an empty net for a 1-0 Cardinals lead.
The second goal came in the 68th minute when Johnson blasted a free kick that bounced off Torres, and this time Ulen was there for the rebound goal.
The Peninsula men battled hard throughout the match, but could not find the net.
“North Idaho played a very good game,” Anderson said. “They are athletic and strong in the air. The difference in the game was their ability to capitalize on their set pieces.”
Anderson said he spent some time at halftime talking to his players about how to maintain footing.
“We struggled to connect passes on a small, torn-up field,” he said. “It was a factor, but that is why you try to get home field advantage.”
The Pirates will begin their quest to earn that home field advantage in 2015 — and to bring the NWAC trophy back to their case.
It starts with offseason training for the freshmen and a recruiting effort to fill the shoes that will be left by the graduating sophomores.
Anderson stepped in this year to coach the Peninsula men following the departure of Andrew Chapman in July.
The college administration and coaches will meet in the coming weeks to decide how to move forward with the most dominant soccer program in the NWAC.
“We were dealt with a challenge to find a coach for a very strong soccer program pretty late in the game, and we are very fortunate that coach Anderson stepped up,” Peninsula director of athletics Rick Ross said.
“It was a tall order, but he did an outstanding job with both teams and he had great help from his staff, Tim Tucker and Omar Anderson, as well as volunteer assistant Amanda Anderson.”
