PORT ANGELES — The Peninsula College men’s soccer team, ranked No. 1 in the NWAC most of the season, received devastating news Thursday before its quarterfinal playoff match against a Tacoma team that always plays tough and physical.
The Pirates learned that Nil Grau, who not only led the team in scoring but the entire NWAC with 47 points had sustained a serious hamstring injury and is unlikely to play again this season. Peninsula also ended the regular season a little flat, going 1-1-2 over its last four games after locking up the North Region title with 12 straight wins.
The Pirates collected themselves and everyone stepped up, as they went on to shut out the Titans 3-0. No one rose to the occasion more than Austin Collins, who came in to the match with five goals. He scored two goals, nearly had four goals, and he also drew a penalty that eventually led to the Pirates’ third goal.
Head coach Jake Hughes shared a famous quote to help rally his players.
” ‘One man can be a crucial ingredient on a team, but one man cannot make a team.’ I can’t take credit for that, that’s by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. But I thought it was very appropriate,” Hughes said. “The team responded.”
“I felt I had to give 110 percent,” Collins, from Buckinghamshire, UK, said. “We feel good. Everyone is very happy right now. Everyone gave everything on the pitch.”
Collins also gave credit to his teammates who continued to make perfect lead passes to set him up for runs to the goal.
“Without them, I wouldn’t have scored a goal,” he said.
The Pirates not only had to overcome Grau’s injury, but having two first-half goals overturned for offsides. Both of those goals were scored by Collins as he came that close to having a four-goal game, which would have nearly equaled his season total of five. But it showed that Tacoma simply had to answer for his speed.
Laurin Lettow also made a number of outstanding saves to preserve the shutout as Tacoma definitely had some chances. His best saves came in the 27th minute on a long free kick that forced him to knock the ball down. The rebound went right to a Tacoma player in the box, who drilled a point-blank shot that Lettow managed to gobble up. Lettow finished with four saves, two of them coming about three seconds apart.
Collins finally broke through for a goal that counted in the 37th minute, getting a great pass from Edwin Diaz, celebrating with a pair of backflips.
The Pirates took that 1-0 lead into the half. Tacoma had a scary flurry of shots from the 56th to the 63rd minutes with a bunch of free kicks and corners, with two shots barely missing the posts wide.
Collins made the Titans pay for not being able to capitalize in the 67th minute, again getting a great lead pass, this time from Konrad Mueller, to get him open behind the Tacoma defense for a successful shot.
Just three minutes later, Collins drew a foul just outside the penalty box, giving the Pirates a chance with a free kick from point-blank range. The Tacoma defenders touched the shot with a hand above the shoulders, giving the Pirates a penalty kick. Ezrah Ochoa converted the penalty kick to make it 3-0, essentially putting the game out of reach with 20 minutes to play. The Pirates had to battle through a long, 7-minute stoppage at the end of the second half to preserve the shutout.
Peninsula (14-1-2) now goes on to the NWAC semifinals at the Starfire Soccer Complex in Tukwila to play Walla Walla (15-2-4) at 6:30 p.m.
