Peninsula Daily News
PORT ANGELES — The Peninsula College men’s soccer team rebounded from its first loss in six matches with a 6-1 throttling of Everett on Wednesday.
The Pirates scored four goals in the second half to break the game open and maintain its lead in the NWAACC West Division.
John Troka had two goals and an assist, and Aaron Oppeltz dished out three assists as the NWAACC’s second-ranked squad improved to 8-4-2 on the season.
“It was a good performance,” Pirates coach Andrew Chapman said. “It was nice to get on the board and find the net a lot.
“It was a little shaky in the first half. We’re still giving up goals, which isn’t a good thing, we’ve got to figure that out. But besides that they did some really good things.”
The Pirates scored first when Bobby Catania knocked home a Jaime Camarena pass 13 minutes into the match.
Peninsula made it 2-0 on a goal by former Port Angeles Roughrider Jagpreet Kang off an Oppeltz assist.
Everett closed the gap on a rebound goal by Kevin Chavez off a ball that was blocked by Pirates goalkeeper Jase Hall, making it 2-1 at halftime.
The second half was all Peninsula, as the home team punched through four unanswered goals, two by Troka and the other two from Connor Taylor and Cory Matthews.
The Pirates’ other assists came from Ryan Muyskens and Troka.
“We had only scored six goals from our forward all season, and today we ended up with four goals from guys playing up front,” Chapman said. “It was good to see that.”
Peninsula outshot Everett (3-9-0) 22-5.
Hall had four saves and Brent Ricigliano, who played keeper in the second half, had one.
The Pirates travel to Bellevue to face the Bulldogs in a match that will figure large in the race for the West Division title.
