WOMEN’S SOCCER: Peninsula erupts for 13 goals, drill second-place Edmonds

PORT ANGELES — Peninsula women’s soccer coach Kanyon Anderson wasn’t happy with his team’s lack of goal-scoring after a 2-0 win over Whatcom last week that he felt was much closer than it should have been.

Well, the Pirate women took his words to heed, exploding for 13 goals Wednesday against Edmonds in their best offensive showing of the year.

And it’s hard to believe, but their offensive eruption came against a team that tied the Pirates 1-1 just two weeks ago, Peninsula’s only blemish in league play.

Keep in mind, Edmonds is not one of the bottom feeders of the NWAC. This is a second-place team in the North Division that came into Wednesday’s match hoping to pull within three points of the Pirates. Now, the Tritons find themselves nine points out of first.

Shantel Torres-Benito and Taylor Graham both had spectacular matches for Peninsula, each scoring three goals and picking up an assist. Meanwhile, Samantha Oliveira had two goals and an assist for the Pirates.

The Pirates haven’t lost since early September, but a number of their matches have been close and they’ve had six matches in which they’ve scored three goals or fewer.

“I thought the commitment and energy weren’t there. You have to have a final push to score, like a good basketball player goes to the hole,” said Anderson. “We were lacking the last acceleration. Today, we had it.”

“Our energy and we were on the same page. Now we’re working together,” Torres-Benito credited to the offensive showing.

Torres-Benito said the team focused on scoring all week in their practices.

“What we were doing in practise paid off. What we were doing, we incorporated into the game,” she said.

Peninsula ended up with 31 shots to the Tritons two.

It was a chippy match with the Edmonds goalie getting into a scuffle with some Peninsula players after a Torres-Benito goal. The Tritons didn’t do themselves any favors as they were forced to play most of the match with 10 players due to an ejection.

Anderson thought the tie two weeks ago against the Tritons helped fire up the Pirates. He said Peninsula did not play well in that game. He also thought the team can still get better.

“We’re playing well, but we haven’t clicked on all cylinders yet. Today, that’s what that can look like,” he said.

Other goal scorers included Kayla Alcott, Breanne Kuni and Halle Nottage, who also had an assist. The Pirates’ Sydney Seitler scored her first career goal and she also picked up an assist.

One minor flaw in the win was the Pirates’ long scoreless streak being snapped. Tritons’ forward Kaila Wiley got behind the Pirates’ defense in the 27th minute and was able to score. That broke the Pirates’ scoreless streak at 460 minutes.

Peninsula (9-0-1 28 points, 11-2-1) plays Shoreline (0-10, 0-14-1) at noon Saturday at Sigmar Field.

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Sports Editor Pierre LaBossiere can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or plabossiere@peninsuladailynews.com.