A big win over the North Mason Bulldogs (0-3 in the Olympic League, 5-1 overall) is exactly what the Sequim Wolves needed going into a break.
Led by Cameron Chase and his two goals, Sequim (2-2, 3-3-1) powered past the Bulldogs 6-1 at home on March 31 days after a narrow 1-0 loss in Port Angeles on March 28.
The win puts Sequim back at .500 in both league play and overall.
“It’s hard to say anything bad after the P.A. game,” head coach Dave Brasher said. “We just didn’t get the result. North Mason is missing a couple of their guys and they are a good team to get healthy on.
“We picked up right where we left off. We had some good ball movement and they don’t tackle nearly as hard as P.A. So we had a lot more time and space.”
Kyle Harrison started the scoring strike 17 minutes in for the Wolves during a throw-in from the corner from Hayden James.
Liam Harris scored five minutes later off a bounce from Bulldog.
Chase’s two goals came two minutes apart 31 and 33 minutes in with the first assisted by Adrian Espinoza and the second from Josh Gonzalez.
In the second half Espinoza assisted James 49 minutes in to go up 5-0 and from a direct kick at midfield he knocked it off the goalie’s hands into the corner of the goal to go up 6-0 (56 minutes).
Goalkeeper Austin Wagner only saw a few shots on the night, saving one and giving up one goal 75 minutes in to North Mason’s Miguel Sebastian.
Brasher said during the time off the team continues to work with its starting four defenders of Will Bitner, Jerry Bryan, Christian Benson and Patrick McCrorie to make them more comfortable.
Despite the big win, Espinoza said he felt they could have played a lot better like in their 3-1 win in North Kitsap on March 25.
“I think that was our best game,” he said.
But the season is going well for the Wolves, Espinoza feels.
“We’ll progress as we go,” he said. “We can only get better from here. We need to work on our getting our heads up, looking up the field and executing at the end. Our shots are kind of off right now.”
Sequim continues to practice this week and will return to play in Port Townsend on April 14 and host Bremerton on April 16.
Brasher said they’ll continue to work on possessions and good ball control while hoping players continue to get healthy like last year’s leading scorer Thomas Winfield.
While there’s still plenty of season left, Brasher is encouraged so far.
“The way this team is going and we beat the teams that we should, we’ll at least get in there (districts) in the fourth spot,” he said.