PORT ANGELES — Celebration or sorrow — the two possible outcomes of tonight’s Olympic League girls soccer clash between league-leading Port Angeles and Olympic at Civic Field at 6:45 p.m.
To say there is a lot on the line for the Roughriders almost underplays the significance of the contest.
Tonight’s game is monumental in the history of the Port Angeles program.
That’s what happens when it’s been 35 years between league titles for the Riders.
Port Angeles (9-2-0, 12-2-1) leads North Kitsap (10-1-0, 13-1-1) by two points (29-27) heading into the final regular season games for each squad.
Due to the pro hockey style scoring rules used in the Olympic League (three points for a win, two points for a shootout win and a point for a shootout loss) the Riders (no shootout wins, two shootout losses) leads the Vikings (three shootout wins) despite an additional loss in the standings.
So any win — regulation or via penalty kick shootout will seal the Class 2A Olympic League crown for Port Angeles.
It also would lock up victory No. 100 for Riders head coach Scott Moseley. Moseley is in his 11th season leading the program.
Fitting end at Civic Field
And a win would be a proper send-off for five Port Angeles seniors playing in their final home match at Civic Field.
Defenders Lucah Folden, Bella Money, Kiana Watson-Charles along with midfielder Delaney Wenzl and goalkeeper Madi Roening have been stalwarts defensively for a stingy Riders defense — leading Moseley to describe that “strong team defense” as a “hallmark” of the team.
Opposing teams have only managed an Olympic League-low six goals from open play leading to a 0.4 goals against average per game.
“On defense, we all have really good communication and lift each other up constantly. If we make a mistake, we quickly talk about it [and] fix it on the next time around,” Roening said.
This was echoed by senior defender Lucah Folden.
“I think one of our most valuable qualities is the trust we have in one another, and always knowing that we have each other’s backs.”
The Riders also combine for plenty of fireworks offensively.
Port Angeles leads the Olympic League in goals scored (36) during league play and have put up 54 goals in total on the season (an average of 3.6 goals per game).
Forward Millie Long snapped the school’s single-season goal scoring record with two goals in a 2-0 win over Bremerton last week to give her an astounding 26 tallies this season. She broke Christy Nathan’s long-standing record of 25 set 35 years ago in 1984.
Varsity newcomers in juniors Hannah Reetz and Jada Cargo, along with freshman Anna Petty all have netted goals for the Riders — and taken some of the goal-scoring load off of Long’s shoulders.
Football: Tie-breaker scenarios
The Olympic League football playoff race will go down to the final week of the season as four teams — North Kitsap (5-0, 6-2); Sequim (4-1, 7-1); Olympic (4-1, 6-2) and Bremerton (3-2, 5-3) fight for three district playoff berths.
Thankfully, a playoff tiebreaker won’t have to be played as Olympic League athletic directors have announced the league’s tie-breaking criteria.
The league will use the following criteria (applied in sequential order) to determine playoff seeding: 1. Head-to-head results 2. point differential among tied opponents (capped at 14 points) 3. point differential among league opponents (capped at 14 points) and a pre-season number draw (which cannot be used to eliminate a team from a post-season berth).
And here are the four scenarios that are possible after Friday’s contests.
Remember that North Kitsap has beaten Sequim and Bremerton and plays Olympic on Friday.
Sequim has lost to North Kitsap but has beaten Olympic and hosts Bremerton on Friday.
Olympic has beaten Bremerton.
Scenario 1
North Kitsap beats Olympic and Sequim beats Bremerton.
The Vikings (6-0), Sequim (5-1) and Olympic (4-2) advance with the Knights’ seeing their season come to a close.
Scenario No. 2
North Kitsap beats Olympic and Bremerton beats Sequim.
The Vikings would take the title at 6-0. Sequim, Bremerton and Olympic would all tie with 4-2 league marks.
The tiebreaker becomes point differential between the teams.
Olympic would be established at zero (-14 in loss to Sequim and +14 in win over Bremerton).
If Bremerton beats Sequim by 13 or less: the Wolves would have a positive differential and Bremerton would have a negative differential — Sequim would take the No. 2 seed and Olympic the No. 3 with Bremerton out of the running.
If Bremerton beats Sequim by 14 or more: All three schools would tie with a zero point differential.
The tie-breaker would then move to point differential among league opponents:
Olympic would be at plus-42 (minus the point differential in a loss to North Kitsap).
Sequim would be at plus-31 and Bremerton at plus-30
Scenario No. 3
If Olympic beats North Kitsap and Sequim beats Bremerton, Olympic, North Kitsap and Sequim would tie at 5-1.
The tiebreaker becomes point differential between the three tied opponents
Sequim would be established at plus-6 (-8 in loss to NK and +14 in win over Olympic)
If Olympic beats North Kitsap by one or two points the Vikings would be No. 1 at plus-6 or plus-7, Sequim No. 2 (plus-6) and Olympic third (-13 or -12 points).
If Olympic beats North Kitsap by three to 10 points Sequim would get the top spot, North Kitsap would be second and Olympic third.
If Olympic puts a hurting on the Vikings and win by 11 or more points the Wolves get the No. 1 seed, Olympic the No. 2 and North Kitsap the third spot in the district playoffs.
Scenario No. 4
If Olympic beats North Kitsap and the Knights beat Sequim, Olympic gets the No. 1 seed, North Kitsap is second and Bremerton takes the third seed due to a head-to-head win over the Wolves.
Got all that? Good, there will be an exam on this material.
For Sequim the answer is simple: just win, baby.
Sequim’s Lucas Lawrence (82) and Brett Mote (27) celebrate a fumble recovery deep in Wolves’ territory late in Sequim’s 14-12 win over Hoquiam last Friday. (Michael Dashiell/Olympic Peninsula News Group)
