VANCOUVER, B.C. — The Peninsula College men’s and women’s soccer teams loaded into the Black Pearl, the college’s coach bus, and headed north of the border for a challenging weekend against three formidable Canadian hosts.
The Pirate men, currently ranked 10th in the nation’s junior colleges, managed a 2-2 tie with Kwantlen Polytechnic University, a college of 17,500 students, and a 3-1 win over University of the Fraser Valley, with an enrollment of 16,000.
As has become the custom in the season’s first four games, the men’s team was again led offensively by Alex Martinez and Ash Apollon.
Meanwhile, the 12th-ranked women’s team was held scoreless in its two games.
On Saturday, the Pirate women fell 2-0 to Simon Fraser University, a college of 30,000 students that represents the only non-American institution in the NCAA, and 3-0 to Fraser Valley on Sunday.
In Saturday’s men’s match, the Peninsula faced a strong Kwantlen Polytech club that was coming off a fourth-place finish in the 2012 PacWest Provincial Championships.
The Pirates opened the scoring on a goal by Apollon, assisted by Martinez, just 15 minutes in, but the Eagles tied it at 1-1 at halftime.
The hosts then went out in front 2-1 on a penalty kick, before Martinez managed to put one in the net with only 17 minutes remaining off an assist by Canadian Keevan Webb, a freshman from Victoria, to escape with a 2-2 tie.
“Saturday, we played well but didn’t really get into the flow of things,” Peninsula coach Andrew Chapman said.
“Our guys were trying to figure things out still.”
Sunday’s opponent, the Fraser Valley, also tested the Pirates (3-0-1).
The Sasq‘ets were 4-2-0 in preseason play, including a 1-0 win over Western Washington University.
Fraser Valley scored first, but the rest of the match belonged to the Pirates, who answered with a goal by Apollon at the 14-minute mark, took the lead on a goal by Martinez 17 minutes later, and then put it out of reach with a goal by Steven Rodriguez just before the half.
A staunch effort by the Peninsula defense and goalkeepers Angel Guerra and Aaron Zavolokin preserved the 3-1 victory.
“These are two great results for us,” coach Andrew Chapman said.
“Kwantlen and University of Fraser Valley are both very strong programs that play in a very good Canadian league with players getting to play five years of college soccer.”
Martinez and Apollon currently rank first and second, respectively, in the NWAACC in goals scored.
Martinez, who finished 2012 with the second most goals scored in the conference, is first with five goals in four games.
Apollon, a freshman, is second with four goals.
The Pirate men (3-0-1) host Columbia Basin (0-2-0) for a nonconference match Wednesday at 5 p.m. at Wally Sigmar Field.
Women drop two
The Peninsula women were coming off satisfying scrimmage wins over the University of Vancouver Island, University of Victoria and Trinity Lutheran University, but things didn’t go their way Saturday against Division II Simon Fraser.
The Clan, who play in the GNAC with Western Washington University and Central Washington University and who boast two U.S. national championships in women’s soccer, produced goals in the 57th and 77th minutes, and keeper Simone Tessler of Eugene, Ore., recorded the shutout.
“We had the flow of the play in the first half; it looked like we were going to come out on top,” Peninsula coach Kanyon Anderson said.
“However, they scored on a shot from 25 yards out in about the 60th minute. We hurried, and when we moved a player out of the defense and into the attack with about 10 minutes left, they scored a second [in the] 86th minute.”
The Pirates out-shot The Clan 14-7 and took eight corner kicks to Simon Fraser’s two.
On Sunday, Fraser Valley scored in the second minute, and again right before halftime to take a 2-0 lead into the intermission. The Sasq‘ets scored its third goal in the 60th minute.
“Both games were physical and hard fought,” Anderson said.
“We played tentatively in the first game once we fell behind, but in the second match, we got stronger as the game went along.”
He expects that his team will ultimately benefit from the two losses.
“We still have many questions to answer about our team dynamics and about which players need to be on the field in key moments,” Anderson said.
“The positive is that by playing these difficult games, we become a stronger team and should be prepared to do well in the NWAACC.”
Scrimmage ruling
The two losses, which is one more than the Pirates had all of 2012, give the Peninsula women a 0-2 record.
The Pirates’ 6-1 win over Trinity Lutheran last week at the NWAACC Friendlies tournament, was ruled a scrimmage and not an official game by the NWAACC, Anderson told the Peninsula Daily News.
The impact is that a win was stricken from Peninsula’s record, and that the players’ goals and assists in that game will not count toward the season statistics.
In addition, the Pirates will only play 19 games this season, rather than the 20 played by the rest of the NWAACC.
On the positive side, Anderson said that his team will likely be granted another scrimmage in the spring.
The Peninsula women are idle until Tuesday, Sept. 10, when they travel to Lane.