The perennial powerhouse Pirate women weren’t winless for long.

After beginning the year with two losses at the NWAC Friendlies, Peninsula College’s women scored a pair of victories last weekend to even their season mark at 2-2.

Peninsula broke through for two first-half goals and knocked off perennial NWAC Eastern Region power Spokane 2-0 on Sept. 1 in Port Angeles.

“We played with a little more commitment to what the game presented us,” Pirates coach Kanyon Anderson said. “Both of the goals came off of pretty good pressure from our defense.

“Early on in the season when you are still building chemistry it’s not really about scoring beautiful goals, it’s more about forcing turnovers and capitalizing.”

Peninsula opened the scoring in the 24th minute when Sam Guzman headed in a corner kick by Emilee Greve.

“That was a really nice corner by Emileee and a great header by Sam,” Anderson said.

Guzman is a sophomore defender on the Pirates back line. She showed a knack for coming up and scoring off set pieces last season, the Anderson said.

“She’s done that quite a bit for us,” he said. “That was great; Sam is a super talented player.”

The other goal came seven minutes later when Peninsula forced a turnover in Spokane territory, and freshman striker Sam Oliveira put it away.

PC’s Andrea Kenagy played the full 90 minutes in goal and had four saves to earn the shutout.

“She did a nice job in goal,” Anderson said.

“Spokane has a fast striker Cheris Brown, and she came really close to some goals, but Andrea made some good plays to come off the line early and break things up before they developed any further.”

A day later, also on their home turf, the Peninsula women got goals from Greve and Guzman and held on to pull out a 2-1 win over North Idaho.

Greve scored early in the match in the 14th minute with the assist going to Pi’lani Chaves. The Pirates held on to the narrow lead until the 67th minute when Guzman scored an insurance goal, with an assist going to Shantel Torres-Benito.

It turns out Peninsula needed that insurance goal, as North Idaho scored in the 79th minute to make it 2-1. The Pirates were able to hang on for the final 11 minutes to preserve the win.

Anderson said it wasn’t the Pirates’ most stylish win, but the team wasn’t totally fresh playing games on back-to-back days.

“I told the women I would give them a B-minus,” Anderson said. “Our goal was to win two games this weekend and we’re hoping to turn that into some positive momentum.”

PC out-shot North Idaho 14-6.

Anderson said he felt that momentum was important as the Pirates begin North Division play on Saturday, Sept. 8, against Shoreline; game time is noon.

Men edge North Idaho

Peninsula’s men picked up their first win of the year with a home shutout over North Idaho 1-0 on Sept. 2 in Port Angeles.

The game was scoreless until the 74th minute when Mason Haubrich broke through with a goal, assisted by Noah Scofield.

The Pirates’ Tristan Landry picked up the shutout as the Pirates hung on with two big saves in the final minute of the match, one by defender Collyn Burkett and the other by Landry on a point-blank shot.

Peninsula is now 1-2 after dropping a pair of non-conference games at NWAC Friendlies on Aug. 23 and 24.

PC coach Jake Hughes said there wasn’t much separating this game from the Pirates’ two losses to open the season.

“There wasn’t a lot of difference with our previous games in term of our performance. All of our performances have been good,” he said. “The difference today is we put one in the back of the net.”

Hughes said the team dominated early, out-shooting North Idaho 10-1 in the first half. The Pirates out-shot North Idaho 14-6 for the entire game.

Hughes said Landry played well, but the defense played well, too. “He (Landry) didn’t have a whole lot to do.

“The team as a whole was really effective,” Hughes said. “We had a great week of training.”

Haubrich was named the man of the match for his goal. Hughes said Burkett and Yuki Lavole also played well for the Pirates.

Peninsula (1-2, 0-0) begins North Division conference play at home on Saturday, Sept. 8, against Shoreline.