Nearly three decades after their stellar season, these Cardinals still impress.

Skagit Valley Community College’s 1988 men’s soccer team went undefeated in 16 regular season matches — including 11 consecutive wins — and went on to sweep all foes in the postseason on their way to a Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges title.

That performance recently put Skagit Valley — including Sequim residents Jon Porlier and Willie Hammond — into the NWAC Hall of Fame.

The Cardinals were inducted June 2 at the Red Lion Inn in Bellevue, along with the 1998 Skagit Valley woman’s basketball team and 1998 Edmonds baseball team.

“The team just had good chemistry — a great group of guys,” Porlier said. “At that time, Skagit was the powerhouse in the league. We were the team to beat.”

The Cardinals amassed seven NWAC titles between 1977-1986 and took third place in 1987, Porlier’s freshman season.

Porlier, a 1986 Sequim High School graduate, had only been playing soccer for four years when he tried out at Skagit Valley. He attended Sequim schools from kindergarten through graduation.

In his sophomore season (1984) Sequim High started a boys varsity soccer squad and Porlier was on the roster under head coach Roger Ferrari.

His feet made him an asset when it came time to play collegiate ball, Porlier said.

“I made the (Skagit Valley) team mostly because I was really fast — they liked the speed,” Porlier said.

Hammond grew up in Fryeberg, Maine, before moving with his family to the peninsula when his father opened a business in Sequim in 1988.

Not knowing the area well, he asked which schools would be good to play collegiately and heard Seattle Pacific University and Skagit Valley CC were among the top ones.

“There were lot of all-star kids (on Skagit’s squad); I was just happy I made the team,” Hammond recalled.

Predominantly a forward off the bench in his first year at Skagit, Porlier shifted to outside defender and started a handful of games when the Cardinals added a pair of high-powered scorers Brad Owens and Tim Babcock (Babcock went on to win an NWAC title as coach of the 1998 Cardinals).

Including non-conference and preseason games, Skagit finished 20-2-4 overall, going undefeated in 16 regular season and two postseason matches.

“We were just unstoppable — we already had a solid team,” Porlier said. “It was obvious we were going to do some damage.”

At the time I understood how good our team was,” said Hammond, a forward with the Cardinals. “We were a team — there were no egos. (But) we didn’t even take time to think about it.”

Skagit rolled through the regular season and capped it with a win against Edmonds in the championship game.

The 1988 title was part of a legendary streak for then coach Dave Ryberg, whose Cardinals won 35 in a row from the end of the 1987 regular season to the start of the 1989 campaign, still an NWACC record.

“He wasn’t a soccer player, but he has a degree in psychology,” Porlier recalled of Ryberg. “He made excellent halftime speeches.”

Following his days at Skagit, Hammond played at Western Washington University where he walked on and then lived in Utah for about eight years before moving to the Olympic Peninsula. He works as a broker for Jace Real Estate Company in Sequim.

Porlier, now an assistant manager at All Around Bikes, kept his soccer legs over the years, playing on an over-30 open team that won or placed high in dozens of tournaments across the West Coast. On the peninsula, Porlier plays in recreational leagues — including a team with Hammond.

Porlier also earned a U.S. Soccer coaching license and has coached on several levels locally, including at Sequim High School and the club Storm King Soccer program.

While he’s not coaching now, Porlier said he’d like to return to heading up a team — particularly in the 10- to 12-year-old age range.

“Because they want to be there, want to be coached,” he said.

Porlier and Hammond were on hand along with Cardinal teammates last week to accept honors — “a lot of guys I haven’t really talked to in 27, 28 years (and) within 10, 20 minutes, we’re hanging out like old times,” Porlier said — and got an unexpected treat: a free pass to any NWAC event for life.

“I was honored and surprised,” Hammond said. “It brought back … a special time in my life.”