Men’s soccer: Pirates outlast Trojans in slugfest

Peninsula squad scores seven goals in conference victory

A soccer match started mid-afternoon Saturday and a football (American-style) game broke out.

Peninsula out-slugged visiting Everett 7-3 in what turned out to be a lopsided matchup — eventually.

Jonathan Martinez had four goals and an assist and teammate Keo Ponce added two scores as the Pirates, now in first place in the North Division, shrugged off two own-goals to knock off the Trojans, who sit in last place in the North.

Ponce opened the scoring taking a deft pass from Eddie Benito for a tally at 11 minutes. But Everett evened things up at 32 minutes, deflecting a shot off a PC player and past Nick Johnson for a 1-1 tie.

It was still 1-1 at 50 minutes before Jonathan Jonathan found Martinez for a score, but again Everett had an answer as Brendan Aune knotted the game at 2-2 just seven minutes later. That’s when a barrage of PC goals came, including Ponce at 60 minutes, Martinez at 68 minutes and Martinez again just six minutes later.

The Pirates handled the Trojans 4-0 in their previous meeting at Everett.

Peninsula hosts Skagit Valley on Oct. 7 and Whatcom on Oct. 10.

 

Downing the Dolphins

Despite a comparatively meager record, Shoreline’s squad put up quite a fight against the No. 2-ranked Pirates. It wasn’t enough in the end, however.Benito, a PC sophomore captain, converted a penalty kick after teammate Joe Sorensen beat the Dolphin defense and the Pirates forced a Shoreline own-goal in the second half of a 2-0 Peninsula win on Sept. 30.

Johnson, the Pirate keeper, picked up his NWAC-leading fifth shutout.

After 33 minutes of a stalemate, PC broke through when Sorensen got the ball in the right wing, beat a defender and was fouled from behind, leading to Benito’s penalty score.

The Pirates threatened again in the final seconds of the first half on a chip shot from Henry Bernabe, but Dolphin keeper Jerry Reyes managed to tip the ball over the crossbar.

It stayed 1-0 until Martinez intercepted a Shoreline goal kick, dribbled into the box and attempted to slip a pass to Ponce. A Shoreline defender attempted to clear the ball and it found the Dolphin net for the insurance goal.

 

North Division standings

Team Conf. Pts Over. GF-GA Sho.

Peninsula  6-0-1 19 8-1-2 28-10 5

Whatcom 4-1-2 14 5-2-2 21-14 1

Edmonds 3-2-2 11 3-4-3 13-17 2

Sk. Valley 2-4-1 7 2-6-1 10-19 1

Shoreline 1-3-3 6 1-3-6 12-13 2

Everett 0-6-1 1 0-8-1 7-29 0