PORT ANGELES — In an entertaining and physical battle between Olympic Peninsula rivals, the Port Angeles boys soccer team got a pair of goals from Matthew Miller and held on during a rugged second half to overcome Sequim 2-1 at Wally Sigmar Field, putting themselves in solid position for third place in the Olympic League.
It was the first time the Riders had beaten Sequim since 2023.
“This game is a huge turning point for us,” said Port Angeles coach Chris Saari, as his Riders improved to 4-2 in league after the young team went through some rough growing pains last season. “They’ve had the upper hand on us for a couple of years. Sequim is a tier above some of the teams we’ve beaten so far this year.
“We needed this win. [Goalkeeper] Gus Halberg stepped up and Grant Butterworth was super strong,” Saari said.
“Obviously it was a big game, what we’ve done and where we’ve placed ourselves in our league,” said Butterworth, who had a nice assist in the game.
“The second half was physical,. We lost a lot of close games last year, but a lot of our freshmen and sophomores got experience last year of how to play in physical games,” Butterworth said.
“We out-possessed them by a long shot, that final pass just eluded us,” said Sequim coach Dave Breckenridge. “The guys put in a great effort. We just have to be smarter with our decisions.”
“It’s always physical here. Both teams came out wanting to win,” Breckenridge said.
The game started off great for Sequim and disastrously for the Roughriders as the Wolves scored just 90 seconds into the game after a defensive breakdown by Port Angeles. Because of a miscommunication, the Wolves’ Sebastian Buhrer was left unmarked after a throw-in in front of a wide-open goal mouth. Buhrer took advantage of the opportunity and his shot was perfect to give the Wolves a 1-0 lead.
After that stunning goal, Port Angeles controlled much of the play for the rest of the first half with the ball in Sequim’s end most of the half. The Riders’ Kanyon Anderson nearly got an equalizer in the ninth minute on a nice shot from the right side that just went wide of the left post.
The Riders finally broke through in the 27th minute when Grant Butterworth made a great through pass, setting up Miller for an open run. Miller finished the play with his first goal.
Anderson had his second near-goal in the 30th minute when a high-arcing shot was punched by Sequim’s keeper Evan Cisneros, who leaped high to just knock the ball over the crossbar.
Anderson finally ended up getting in the scorebook when he made a beautiful cross that got deflected off a Sequim defender to an open Miller in the 35th minute. Miller buried his shot in the left corner to give the Riders a 2-1 lead.
In the second half, the Wolves came out fired up and had possession and the ball in Port Angeles’ end much of the half. The game also got physical with a number of hard collisions and yellow cards. Three Roughriders went down with cramps, including Miller.
Sequim’s best chance for an equalizer came in the 48th minute on a powerful left-footed shot by Colin Feik just outside the penalty area, forcing Halberg to make his best save of the night as he dove to his left to keep the ball out.
Sequim had one more golden opportunity in the 65th minute as Halberg lost control of the ball after a free kick when he was jostled by Sequim players. The ball ended up loose right in front of the goal mouth, but a Sequim shot went high over the crossbar.
It was a stressful end to the game for the Riders as the ref added several minutes of stoppage time and the Wolves kept pressing, putting constant pressure on the Port Angeles defense over the final several minutes. The exhausted Riders were able to hang on.
“That was nerve-wracking at the end,” Saari said. “That was a lot of stoppage time.”
“Hopefully Port Angeles can carry momentum into our next three home games and continue to get results. The three points puts some distance between us and Sequim and the rest of the league below Port Angeles with North Kitsap and Bainbridge holding the No. 1 and No. 2 spots,” Saari said.
Saari named Miller his offensive player of the match, Anderson his transition player of the match and Butterworth, Halberg and Aurelio Wilson-Rojero his defensive players of the match.
Port Angeles (4-2, 5-3 overall) next hosts Steilacoom in a nonleague game at 12:45 p.m. Saturday. Sequim (3-4, 3-4) is off for a week and next plays at Kingston (1-5, 2-6) on Tuesday.
East Jefferson 7, Granite Falls 1
GRANITE FALLS — The East Jefferson boys soccer team won its second game in a row 7-1 over Granite Falls as the Rivals get ready to take on one of the leaders of the Nisqually League, Cascade Christian.
“With how we’ve played in the last two games, playing together, I can’t help but feel we have a chance,” said coach Logan Stegner. “Overall, we played really well and created a lot of chances.”
Stegner said Cascade Christian is a very experienced team with 12 seniors, but they were beaten Tuesday by Vashon for the team’s first loss of the year.
Simon Barlow had a great game for the second straight contest, scoring a hat trick. That gave him five goals in his past two games.
Alan Morales scored two goals, while Crosby Pray and Rene Martin scored goals. Emilio Lopez earned the win in goal.
The Rivals (0-1-0, 6-2-1) return to league action Thursday at Cascade Christian (2-0-0, 5-1-0).
