PORT ANGELES — Playing in the muck and mud of Wally Sigmar Athletic Complex, the Peninsula College men’s soccer team managed to come out golden on Wednesday.
Freshman Brent Ricigliano banged home a deflected shot for a golden goal in the first sudden-death overtime to hand Peninsula a dramatic 3-2 victory over Edmonds in the first round of the NWAACC playoffs.
It was the Pirates’ fourth last-minute win in a season that’s seen them claim a share of the West Division crown and reach the Elite Eight for the third straight year.
“That’s the way we like to do it,” said Peninsula (13-4-5) coach Andrew Chapman. “We don’t like to make anything easy.”
The win sets up a showdown at unbeaten Chemeketa (17-0-2) at 2 p.m. on Saturday, with the winner punching its ticket to the Final Four in Tukwila.
“We’re going to have to really step it up another notch for Chemeketa,” Chapman said.
“We get to bring a division champion to play a division champion in the second round. That’s unheard of.”
Edmonds rallies late
It was a matchup that appeared to be in doubt in the final 10 minutes of the second half.
That’s when the Tritons, outplayed for much of the game, scored a pair of goals to tie the game at 2-2.
The last score on a header from Thomas Sheets came with just three minutes left in regulation, stunning the throng of Pirates supporters on the sideline.
It didn’t take long for the Pirates to respond, however.
Ramping up the pressure in overtime, Peninsula forward Omar Anderson drew a foul just outside of the penalty box two minutes in to set up a free kick.
Sophomore John Troka, forced to sit the opening 25 minutes after missing a practice, teed up the shot and banged it through an opening in Edmonds’ wall of defenders 10 yards away.
The Tritons keeper managed to punch the ball away, but it deflected right to a charging Ricigliano, who put it in the back of the net for his third goal of the season.
“Omar fell down, got the foul and I just followed up John’s excellent free kick,” Ricigliano said.
“On this field, anything was going to happen.”
Indeed, Wally Sigmar had been reduced to little more than a mud patch after two straight weeks of rain, games and practices.
Players on both sides had difficulty with their footing, and balls often dropped dead when hitting the patches of mud that dotted the field.
“We love our field,” Troka said. “Teams come in here thinking they are going to run over us, and they look at our field [and] have no idea what to do.
“We just pass it around those muddy spots and use the corners as much as we can.”
The Pirates did have the better of it for much of the match, out-shooting the Tritons 15-10.
They managed to take a 1-0 lead early in the first half after Cody Sloan dribbled down the right sideline and fed Anderson for an easy goal.
Peninsula added another score four minutes into the second half after Martin Gray headed a ball to Jagpreet Kang, who booted it past the Edmonds keeper for a 2-0 lead.
Edmonds then countered with a furious rally in the game’s final 15 minutes.
Despite a couple of stellar saves from Pirates keeper Jase Hall, the Tritons managed to tie the game with two goals in five minutes, setting up the overtime heroics.
“I just wanted to show the coaches that I knew I made a mistake and I wanted to play it off,” Troka said of missing the start.
“I saw the opening of the wall a little bit [on the free kick], so I just tried to put it through there.
“Everything just kind of went really quiet, everybody was just concentrating. There was a lot of pressure on me to just put it on the goal, and as soon as I saw the ball go in, there was just a rush of energy.”
The Pirates are now 4-2 in first- and second-round playoff games under Chapman.
They will be going for their third straight Final Four appearance when they head to Chemeketa on Saturday afternoon.
“I think we’re going to do really well against that team,” Chapman said. “They haven’t seen a lot of big, strong teams lately.”
Peninsula 3, Edmonds 2, OT
Edmonds 0 2 0 — 2
Peninsula 1 1 1 — 3
Scoring Summary
First half: 1, Peninsula, Anderson (Sloan), 7th minute.
Second Half: 2, Peninsula, Kang (Gray) 48th minute; 1, Edmonds, Parot, 82nd minute; 2, Edmonds, Sheets (Terrel), 87th minute.
Overtime: 3, Peninsula, Ricigliano (Troka), 92nd minute.
