PORT ANGELES — It wasn’t too long ago, only a year in fact, that a tie would’ve been celebrated by the Port Angeles girls soccer team.
Times have changed, however, for the Roughriders (4-3-1 in league, 6-4-1 overall), and the 0-0 result against the Kingston Buccaneers (4-2-2, 4-4-3) in Tuesday night’s final home game of the season elicited no such response.
Instead, there was a tinge of disappointment from a group still clinging to the slimmest of playoff hopes.
“We should have capitalized on some shots and we didn’t do that,” said senior captain Abbie Moseley, the Olympic League’s leading scorer with 18 goals. “It’s disappointing to tie on a Senior Night, especially when it’s your last game and you’re hoping to win.”
Both teams had a handful of chances to break the tie on Tuesday night, with each squad putting 13 shots on goal.
Senior goalkeeper Elise Reid turned away a knuckling Kingston shot off the cross bar to save the Riders from going down 1-0 in the first half. Port Angeles had several centering balls go through the penalty box on the other side of the field, but none that led to a score.
“We came out really strong,” Moseley said, “but we kind of slowed down throughout the game. I think we were just really excited from Senior Night.”
Sophomore Kathryn Moseley got the ball on a breakaway late in the second half in perhaps the Riders’ best chance of the night.
Yet she wasn’t able to get off a clean shot with pressure coming from her left side. The result was a bouncing ball directly at the Kingston keeper that was scooped up easily.
“We had chances we couldn’t convert, they had chances they couldn’t convert,” Port Angeles coach Scott Moseley said. “It was a fairly even game. It wasn’t [the Riders’] best game, but we played well. We just couldn’t get that breakthrough.”
Port Angeles likely lost out on any shot at districts with the tie.
The Riders still have an outside shot at getting one of the top two Class 3A spots in the Olympic League if they can win out, but they would need a complete collapse from either North Kitsap or Olympic as well.
One of those teams would have to lose all three of its final games.
Considering both are unbeaten in league following Tuesday’s games, that would appear highly unlikely.
Yet the fact that Port Angeles, a program that went 1-39-3 the three previous years combined, is even in such a position in the first place is an accomplishment in itself.
“The girls have stepped up,” said Moseley, in his first year as Rider coach. “I told the seniors before the game that I’m just very proud of how they are doing.
“They had a lot to prove this year that they can actually play, and they’ve shown it.”
Port Angeles heads to Bremerton on Thursday in the first of three road matches to close out the season.
It was incorrectly reported in Tuesday’s paper that the Riders had two home games remaining.
Port Angeles 0, Kingston 0
Kingston 0 0 — 0
Port Angeles 0 0 — 0
Scoring Summary
First half: No scoring.
Second Half: No scoring.
Shots on goal: PA 13, Kingston 13