TUKWILA — Kanyon Anderson was kicking himself after the match.
His Peninsula College women tested top-ranked Walla Walla as much as any other soccer team had this season during Sunday afternoon’s NWAACC championship at Starfire Sports Complex.
Yet the second-year Pirates head coach couldn’t help but feel responsible for his team’s 1-0 loss to the undefeated Warriors because of a tactical decision he had made to begin the game.
“We ran a formation [in the first half] that didn’t allow us to attack enough to take the pressure off,” Anderson said.
“It’s just like in boxing. If you don’t counter punch or don’t punch, you’re going to get beat up, and that’s on me.
“As soon as I said, ‘Forget it, we’re going to go play our game,’ we were the better team.”
While there might be a kernel of truth to what Anderson had to say, nobody in Pirate black-and-gold was about to blame their coach following the loss.
Peninsula weathered a Walla Walla onslaught for all but the last minute of the first half. And if tournament MVP Kaylie Winston hadn’t slipped past the Pirate defense for the only goal of the match in the 45th minute, the Pirates may very well have pushed the Warriors to overtime.
As it was, Anderson’s program achieved something few in the NWAACC expected by simply making the championship game in its second year in existence.
While several players shed tears in the aftermath of the team’s runner-up finish, that fact certainly wasn’t lost on the team’s sophomore leaders.
“I’m just floored that my team got together and we played our hearts out,” said goalkeeper Krystal Daniels, one of 10 sophomores on the Pirate roster. “We definitely out-worked them.
“Second place? Oh well, we dominated all season, so it’s great.”
Indeed, for the last two months of the season, there wasn’t another team that controlled its piece of NWAACC turf better than the Pirates.
They didn’t lose a match in 16 tries leading up to Sunday’s championship, outscoring opponents 48-5 with 11 shutouts.
The Pirates won a West Division title, clinching with a handful of matches left in the regular season, and reached the title game by beating the second- and fifth-ranked teams in the NWAACC.
Once they were there, they went toe-to-toe with two-time defending NWAACC champion Walla Walla, a program that hasn’t lost since 2009.
“I’m really excited even though we got second,” sophomore midfielder Jackie Rodgers of Seattle said. “I really don’t have any regrets about this season. Being a second-year program and coming this far is great.
“I don’t think any of the players should be down on themselves; we came really far.”
Walla Walla came into the match as the most explosive team in the NWAACC.
Sporting an unorthodox 4-3-3 formation that allows its three forwards to play aggressively, the Warriors scored 102 goals in 22 matches prior to Sunday.
Peninsula dropped one of its forwards back into support to begin the match, then fought off several attacks on its goal during the first half.
One shot from Warrior midfielder Paige Sorenson ricocheted off the cross bar and another Winston shot hit the post before Daniels was able to snatch it off the end line.
The Kent product made five more saves in the first half as part of a spectacular performance she called “the greatest game of my life.”
“She’s just tough, and she’s brave and she’s skilled,” Anderson said.
“She’s a special goalkeeper, and when you put a special goalkeeper behind a special backline, you’re not going to give up a whole lot of goals.”
Daniels finished with nine saves on the game.
The one shot she didn’t save came at the end of the half when the Warriors caught Peninsula flat-footed for the briefest of moments.
Walla Walla’s Sami Hansen headed a ball into space on a breakaway up field, Winston touched it three times to race past the Pirate backline, then she blasted it into the right corner of the goal with her left foot.
It was the sophomore’s 32nd goal of the season, the most in the NWAACC.
The goal ended a 425-minute scoreless streak for the Pirate defense
“It is a little tough [to give one up right before the end of the half], but at the same time we have to deal with adversity throughout the game and I think my team did great dealing with the adversity of it,” Daniels said.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t put it in the back of the net to make it a tie game, but if they can keep us from scoring, then they deserve it.”
It didn’t come easy for Walla Walla.
Anderson moved a forward back up into the attack to begin the second half, and the Pirates immediately began pressuring the Warrior defense.
Rodgers had one shot from 10 yards out pushed away by diving Walla Walla goalkeeper Courtney Hancock.
One minute after that, Peninsula’s Tabitha Bare headed a ball just over the post.
Sophomore Felicia Collins headed another ball on frame that had to be stopped by Hancock as well.
On the whole, the Pirates out-shot the Warriors 4-3 in the final 45 minutes.
None of them, however, ever got past Hancock, who also made a leaping save of a Rodgers free kick in the first half.
Once a last-gasp Peninsula free kick was turned away in the 90th minute, the final whistle sounded and the Warriors ran to the center of the field to celebrate a third straight NWAACC title.
It marked just the second time Walla Walla had been held to one goal by an NWAACC team all season.
Minutes later, the Pirates embraced a throng of supporters waiting to console them on the sidelines.
“I thought it was a great season,” said Rodgers, the West Division MVP. “I love my team.
“Being out in Port Angeles, we have grown to become more of a family. We all like each other. Everyones’ attitudes are great compared to a lot of other community colleges.
“I don’t ever want to leave, but we have to go on.”
Said Anderson, “I’m not disappointed, I’m not sad. It was a dream season.
“But the other part of it is that we didn’t do anything beyond what we were capable of doing. We didn’t play outside of ourselves.
“If we were to turn around and do it all over again, we’d be here in the championship again, so it’s not this crazy Cinderella story.”
