WOLVES KNOCK OFF LEAGUE-LEADING TROJANS

Sequim’s Jeff Catton, center, looks to break through the Olympic Trojan defense in the first half of Sequim’s 2-1 win April 10. Photo by Michael Dashiell

Sequim — April 10, 2008

One game after their spring break, it looked like the Wolves might be broken.

Two games after the break, and it looks like they can play for a title.

Sequim’s boys soccer squad shrugged off a tough, 5-3 loss to Bremerton early last week with a stoic performance against league-leading (and previously undefeated) Olympic Trojans, topping the visitors from Silverdale 2-1 on April 10.

Eric Huston gave the Wolves a 1-0 halftime lead but it took a Kai Antrim goal — with a little help from John Textor — to break a 1-1 tie and put the Trojans away.

“This team can play with the big dogs,” said Sequim coach Dave Brasher, relishing a win that keeps Sequim in the hunt for an Olympic League title and playoff berth. “We’ve got to play as a team (to win).”

Case in point: Huston, a reserve player who, thanks to due diligence in practice is getting about 10 minutes per game on the varsity squad. Just two minutes after entering Thursday’s game, Huston out-dueled an Olympic defender for control, raced down the left sideline, lunged into the penalty box and beat the Trojan keeper in the far right net for his first goal of the season.

“Huge game (for us),” Huston said afterward. “Everyone had to contribute and everyone did.”

Sequim went into the halftime break up 1-0 but it could have — and perhaps should have — been 2-1 Olympic, if not for key stops from first-year goalie Matt Bedinger. The senior made two big stops on Cody Clark, one of the league’s top scorers, and made two more key second half stops.

Olympic did break through at the 51st minute when Paul Brumm poked one past the Sequim defense to knot the score.

That only seemed to pump Sequim’s lineup even more, and with time waning, the Wolves had a pair of near-goals: At nine minutes, Antrim’s blast from the right side was high, while Olympic’s goalie tipped Nic Camporini’s ricochet rocket from the left side at 3:15 over the post.

But Textor and Antrim teamed up to take down the league leaders with just 2:40 on the clock when Textor got possession in the box.

“I just heard Kai yelling; he was right there,” Textor said afterwards. Falling to his seat, Textor managed to push the ball to the right of the box, and Antrim finished it off for his eighth goal of the season.

The Wolves held on for their fourth win of the season.

Brasher credited a progressively tougher Sequim defense that kept Clark, the leading scorer in the West Sound area in 2007 with 16 goals, at bay — mostly.

“We shut him out; that was our main goal,” Sequim defender Austin Sanford said. “Matt (Bedinger) played awesome. He just put a big paw out there.”

The Wolves remain in third place in the Olympic League’s 2A division behind Kingston and Port Townsend.

Sequim travels to Gig Harbor to play Peninsula High April 15. The Wolves challenge Port Angeles at home April 17 and travel to Port Townsend in a Saturday night special on April 19.

Garcia, Knights blitz Wolves
Soccer may be 11 versus 11, but Francisco Garcia made one-on-11 look possible last week.

The diminutive speedster from Bremerton High recorded four goals — including three in just 15 minutes — as the Knights toppled Sequim 5-3.

A comeback that saw two Wolves goals in the final 12 minutes fell short.

“Last year we pounded Bremerton,” Brasher said, recalling Sequim’s 5-0 and 4-0 wins against Bremerton in 2007. “Maybe it was a wake-up call.”

Antrim opened the scoring with a goal at seven minutes off an assist from Jeff Catton.

But Garcia took advantage of what Brasher called “missed assignments” and scored his sixth, seventh and eight goals of the season between the eighth and 23rd minutes of the first half. With a Sequim own-goal mixed in, the Knights led 4-1 at halftime.

Garcia added his ninth goal 20 minutes into the second half.

Keller Batson and Textor had second half goals for Sequim to keep it close.