Gone, but not forgotten.

More than 250 miles from home, the Peninsula College Pirates paid tribute to one of their own as they took on the Chemeketa Storm in former Pirate star Jared Nagel’s hometown.

Nagel, an all-star forward for Peninsula in 2007, died while snowboarding at Steven’s Pass in early February. He lived in Salem and attended nearby West Salem High School.

With the Nagel family in attendance, Chemeketa shut out Peninsula 1-0.

Pirate goalkeeper Alec Risk, a Salem native, started in goal and recorded five saves.

Both teams played tough, Peninsula coach Andrew Chapman said, with each squad putting eight shots on goal.

The Pirates (0-3) are back in action today against Evergreen State College in Olympia; Peninsula opens the regular season at home Sept. 9 against Edmonds.

Pirates fall to

Canadian squads

Same international foes, same results.

Considering last year’s showing, that may not be a bad thing.

Peninsula College’s men’s soccer squad fell in preseason play 3-0 to the University of Victoria Aug. 25 and 4-0 to Vancouver Island University a day later, the Pirates’ first action of the 2008 season.

Chapman, the Pirates’ head coach, said he isn’t worried about the slow start.

"If you ask me how I feel about these losses and how we played, I would say, ‘We started the same way last year, losing 3-0 and 5-1, but yet we ended up winning 14 games in the season.’"

In the opener, Victoria led 1-0 at halftime before adding a pair of late second-half scores. Chapman said he was pleased with performances by freshmen John Troka in the midfield and Jase Hall in the goal.

Peninsula gave up all four scores against Vancouver Island in the first half, then settled down for a 0-0 second half showing.

"We had one bad half but besides that we played them very tough," Chapman said. "We had two really good chances in the second half by Ernest Boham, just missing the goal."

Both of Peninsula’s opponents allow their players to play for five years, Chapman noted.