Men’s socccer smited by Tacoma Titans

By Mike Drake

Ranked number 1 regionally and number 7 nationally, Peninsula College men’s soccer earned a first round bye in the 2016 playoffs.

On Nov. 5, the Pirates lost during a shootout to the Tacoma Titans at Wally Sigmar Field in overtime.

During the two 10 minute overtime periods no one scored, so it went to a shootout.

Pirate fans were on the edge of their seats as the shootout took place.

The Titans capitalized scoring  one more goal than the Pirates, and advance the Final Four on Nov. 11 at the Starfire Soccer Complex in Tukwila. the final score was 6-5.

Head coach Cale Rodriguez said, “I think injuries and health are important factors in the success of a season. I don’t think we were as healthy as I would have liked to have been coming into the game. I think the other important thing that sometimes is not factored in is the amount of time players miss from training due to injury. I don’t think we had more players out due to injury at one point more so in the entire season than we did leading up to the game. With all that being said, we gave ourselves every opportunity to win the game despite our overall health.”

The Pirates were undefeated this season, with a record of 14-0-1 in league play and 16-0-2 overall.

They were the only team in the North West Athletic Conference without a loss leading up to the game on Saturday.

Peninsula College Athletic Director Rick Ross spoke of things Peninsula College does that other colleges and universities don’t do. “We video stream all of our games, we have an outstanding web and social media presence, we market our programs well, we have great people taking care of our facilities, and my game manager, Jeremiah Johnson, creates an outstanding experience for our players and fans.”

Peninsula College has amassed eight NWAC championships and 20 league championships since 2002.   

“Our coaches put in tremendous time recruiting and they train, within the rules of the Northwest Athletic Conference, 9-10 months of the year,” said Ross. “The reason we won four league championships last year and picked up two more this fall is that we have outstanding coaching staffs, and we have the resources and facilities and support for them to be successful, on and off the field. In addition to winning four league titles and winning three more NWAC trophies last year, we also placed second in the President’s Cup, which is an NWAC competition based on academic success.”

This is the last season for seven athletes: Sergio Uribe, Jose Soto, Demar Stewart, Jared Ortiz, Salvador Vargas, Henry Bernabe and Clarence Wong.