Mekhi Ashby came off the bench to score a second-half goal and James Mason added the winning goal in Sequim’s 2-1 boys soccer win over North Mason at home on April 13, helping SHS earn a split of league games last week.
“The boys defended well in pivotal moments and got key stops,” Sequim coach Juan Carlos Cisneros said.
“Plus, we limited the mistakes in our defending third which had been hurting us in past games.
“We were better in front of the goal finishing our chances in the second half. Our subs played great and contributed on both sides of the ball. Good team win, the boys earned it. Happy to see them come out on top in another close game.”
Cisneros said Ashby and Keaton King were especially effective in reserve in the contest.
On April 11, the Wolves fought back from a 2-0 first-half deficit, but couldn’t find the score needed to overtake the Kingston’s Buccaneers on the road in a 3-2 defeat.
“The boys showed fighting spirit coming back from being down 2-0 in the first half and tying it up just before the halftime break,” Cisneros said.
Though a couple of defending mistakes hurt Sequim, the coach noted, the Wolves got a free kick goal from Preston Kurtze and then an own goal from Kingston to tie it up.
Kingston broke through in the second half, however.
“We gave them several scoring opportunities. Luckily for us, our goalkeeper Nolan Valenzuela made some great saves to keep us in the game,” Cisneros said.
“Unfortunately for us we also gave up an own goal when a ball was put inside the 6-yard box and our defender tried to clear it only to flick off his head into our goal.
“Toward the latter part of the game we had a chance to tie when our forward got played in behind their back line in a one-on-one situation with the goalkeeper, but he could not quite get a good first touch to put the ball in the back of the net.”
The Wolves were slated to host rival Port Angeles on April 18; results were not available at press time.
Coming up
Sequim is at Olympic on April 20 before hosting North Kitsap on April 25 and Bainbridge in April 27.
The Wolves finish their away schedule on May 2 at Bremerton and cap the regular season with a May 4 home date against Kingston.
Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen / Sequim’s Abe Torres, left, looks for an open teammate as Jack Henninger looks on in the Sequim Wolves’ 2-1 win over North Mason on April 13.
