By Eric Trent
After scoring 25 goals in their previous three games, the Peninsula College women’s soccer team overcame a physical, foul-filled first-half with Shoreline, en route to a 2-0 win, Saturday afternoon at Sigmar Field.
Ellie Small scored 16 minutes in, and Kennady Whitehead netted a goal at the 57-minute mark to propel the Pirates to victory.
The Pirates improve to 9-1 in league play to remain tied in first place with Everett in the North Division.
The women are currently ranked No. 11 in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Division I Jr. College National Poll.
Peninsula had trouble finding the net early, battling Shoreline’s swarming defense.
“Shoreline makes a game difficult. They’re really physical; they play a very defensive style. So, it’s never go- ing to be a high-scoring game against them,” Peninsula Head Coach Kanyon Anderson said.
At 16 minutes, El- lie Small broke free of defenders on the left wing, out-raced them to the left side of the box, and blasted a shot from 14-yards out to put Peninsula on top 1-0.
“Coach was yelling to just go. I knew I only had one girl to beat, so I knew I could beat her with my speed. I beat her to the left, looked up to see where the keeper was, and just put it where she wasn’t,” Small said.
Anderson said, “I feel like they were trying to just keep the score low, at all costs, and didn’t take very many chances.”
At 57 minutes, Kennady Whitehead scored on a corner kick to put Peninsula up 2-0 and end the scoring for the game.
“Our coach always tells us not to make the run-in, be where you want to be when the ball’s played in. So, I just stood there, front post, and got the deflection. Just kind of right place, right time,” White- head said.
Anderson said, “That corner kick was an important play. I liked that we got a goal off of a corner kick.”
“I thought we got to a majority of the loose balls in the 2nd half, and that’s kind of when we took the game away,” he said.
Peninsula faces North Division foe Everett in a battle for first place, Wednesday, at 2 p.m. at Sigmar Field.
