PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles girls soccer team got a goal and an assist from freshman Mariah Traband and held on after Sequim scored with three minutes left for a 2-1 victory at Wally Sigmar Field.
Port Angeles coach Daniel Horton said the Roughriders expected Sequim to make a late push with the Riders clinging to a 2-0 lead for 27 minutes.
“We knew they weren’t going to just give up,” said Port Angeles coach Daniel Horton.
“We were putting a lot of pressure on and played up a little too far. They played a good ball through. Give credit to them,” he said.
“I felt like we played a great game,” Horton said. “We did a great job implementing things that we were working on. Our defense was strong.”
“I loved how we played in the last 10 minutes,” said Sequim coach Haley Hunsaker-Freeman. “I was proud of the push we made at the end. We needed that the entire game.”
It was the second one-goal game between the Olympic Peninsula rivals this season. The Riders beat the Wolves 3-2 earlier in the year.
The victory virtually assures that the Roughriders with eight freshmen and sophomores on their varsity roster will finish at least fourth in the Olympic League at 7-5. They could finish third but they would have to beat Kingston (8-4) at home Tuesday and hope that a weak Olympic team pulls a huge upset over Kingston on Thursday.
Sequim, also a young team with eight sophomores and freshmen on varsity, has a tough game left against North Kitsap (11-1) on Thursday but follows with home games against weaker teams such as Bremerton (3-9) and North Mason (1-10) on Nov. 1 to lock up fifth and a potential at-large playoff bid.
Neither team had a lot of dangerous scoring chances as both defenses controlled the game through much of the first half, keeping the ball in the middle of the field much of the game and out of their respective penalty areas.
Port Angeles had a couple of point-blank free kicks but those were their only serious scoring chances until the Riders’ Morgan Politika finally broke through with a goal in the 38th minute with the assist going to Traband. Traband had a golden opportunity to score in the 40th minute as her shot just went wide of the far post as the half ended 1-0.
In the 50th minute, Traband scored on a long through ball from Teanna Clark. The pass set Traband up all alone and she calmly kicked the ball in.
“I was really happy with my performance,” Traband said and added that Clark made a great pass to set up her goal.
“They were sending some really good balls for our forwards,” she said.
The Riders held the 2-0 lead through much of the second half, but a good through pass from Kiley Winter set up the Wolves’ Sasha Yada with a goal in the 77th minute, as she caught goalkeeper Kennedy Rognlien coming out of the goal. Rognlien otherwise played a great match with booming outlet kicks all game into Sequim’s side of the field.
Sequim had a lot of time to score an equalizer as there was a long delay from an injury, creating four minutes of stoppage time.
With the game lasting another seven minutes, the Riders’ defense clamped down again and was able to keep Sequim from having any serious scoring opportunities to hang on for the crucial win.
Port Angeles (7-6 overall) plays at Bremerton at 7 p.m. today. Sequim (4-7, 4-7) plays at North Kitsap at 7 p.m. today.
Sequim head coach Haley Hunsaker-Freeman talks with her team before Tuesday night’s game at Port Angeles. (Pierre LaBossiere/Peninsula Daily News)
Photos by Pierre LaBossiere/Peninsula Daily News Port Angeles head girls soccer coach Daniel Horton talks with his team before beginning its rivalry match Tuesday night against Sequim at Wally Sigmar Field at Peninsula College.
