Oly Town Artesians 5, Tacoma Stars Reserves 5
It was a tight battle for the top spot in the WISL on Saturday night in Olympia with the Tacoma Stars Reserves capturing a road point on a goal by Mark Lee with just 17 seconds left in a 5-5 draw. Kasey Sidor and Jason Fairhurst each scored twice for the Artesians while Tacoma had five different goal scorers and stayed undefeated and two points ahead of Oly Town with one more game coming up between the two squads.
After a scoreless first 15 minutes, Tacoma took a 2-0 lead on goals by Jeff Bader and Kyle Rivers before Kasey Sidor got the Artesians on the board at the 10:03 mark. The Stars responded and made it 3-1 on Craig Johnson’s strike, but Jason Fairhurst scored once on a power play and another on a penalty kick and the game went to the break tied up at 3-3.
After the two teams traded goals late in the third quarter, Yuta Shimazu put the Artesians up 5-4 with 22 seconds late in the third. The fourth quarter was an even affair until Tacoma used the sixth attacker and picked up a goal by Mark Lee on a scramble in the box to tie the game up 5-5 with 17 seconds left and escape Olympia without dropping their first game of the season.
Oly Town (7-1-2) goals: Kasey Sidor (2), Jason Fairhurst (2), Yuta Shimazu
Tacoma (8-0-1) goals: Jeff Bader, Kyle Rivers, Craig Johnson, AJ Nitzel, Mark Lee
Bellingham United 12, Snohomish County 2
In an important game in the race for a playoff spot, Bellingham United left no doubt with a resounding 12-2 win over Snohomish County at the Snohomish Sports Dome on Saturday night. Ale Tomasi and Dany Fazio led the way for the Hammers with a pair of hat tricks.
Bellingham started off quickly with three goals in the first five minutes, including what proved to be the game winner by Fazio at the 10:56 mark of the first quarter. Snohomish got their first goal at the 11:05 mark of the first to make it 2-1, but Bellingham did not allow another goal until early in the fourth quarter and got six goals in each half, including a thrown goal by goalkeeper Riley Liddle to win 12-2.
Bellingham moves to 4-4-1 after a slow start to the season and currently sit in the fourth playoff position three points ahead of Snohomish and holding the tiebreaker on the Steelheads due to two head-to-head wins.
Bellingham (4-4-1) goals: Danny Fazio (3), Ale Tomasi (3), Adan Fernandez (2), Riley Liddle, Richard Henderson, Elliot Rains, Mason Rudolph
Snohomish (3-5-1) goals: Glenn Paden, Tyler Hopp
Everett City 6, Oly-Pen Force 5
Johan Espinoza scored three times and Everett City held off a late Oly-Pen rally to pick up a 6-5 win at the Bremerton Sports Center on Saturday night. The win moved City to 6-3 this season, five points behind Oly Town for the #2 spot with three games remaining.
It was Oly-Pen that jumped out to an early 2-0 lead after the first quarter of play thanks to goals by Jaisen Zurfluh and Cole Jarrett. Everett answered in the second quarter with two goals by Espinoza to tie the game up 2-2 at the 10:53 mark, but the Force retook the lead on Zurfluh’s second goal with just 21 seconds left to take a 3-2 lead into the break.
The two teams traded goals to begin the third quarter but Everett used three straight goals between the third and fourth quarters to build a 6-4 lead with 5:52 to play and held off a last minute comeback attempt to pick up their sixth win in their first season with the 6-5 win.
Everett (6-3) goals: Johan Espinoza (3), Edgar Tavares, Adrian Martinez, Daniel Guerrero
Oly-Pen (0-9-1) goals: Jaisen Zurfluh (2), Cole Jarrett (2), Jonathan Mendoza
Western Indoor Soccer League 