The Vashon Island High School boys’ soccer team had its last home game of the season last Wednesday, April 26, against Cascade Christian and won 7-0. Friday’s game was also Senior Night, the last home game for the team’s senior players. Announcers were on-hand to call out starting line-ups for Cascade Christian and Vashon and recognize the seniors.
The game started out with Vashon dominating and having solid control of the ball. Vashon had good passing through the middle and good runs up the side. The Pirates kept the ball on the Cascade Christian side of the field — plainly dominating the game. There were plenty of shots on goal from Zane Bork, Ben Gass and JJ Bogaard. With the help of Alden Hinden-Stevenson at midfield, Sam Foucault found a pass to Bork, who got the first goal of the game.
The first half was mellow, with good offense and defense. During half-time, the Vashon announcers called out all the seniors to recognize them and their parents.
The second half started out with Vashon pressuring hard. Bork netted his second goal of the game after receiving an excellent pass from Hinden-Stevenson just three minutes into the second half. Bork then, again, got a third goal just three minutes later by controlling a pass from Finley Oswald. Vashon continued destroying Cascade Christian getting goal after goal with Hinden-Stevenson getting his second assist of the night and Gass getting his first goal with a nice shot in the back of the net.
Cascade Christian pressured and tried to rally, but had no luck. Vashon got two more goals in the 61st and 67th minutes. Hinden-Stevenson scored first with Julian White-Davis getting the assist. The second goal came from Bogaard with Sasha Elenko getting that assist. Senior co-captain Foucault, wanting a goal, was putting up excellent shots on goal and had a wonderful break away in the 77th minute that allowed him to tuck a beautiful ball in the back of the net with White-Davis getting his second assist of the night. No more goals were scored the rest of the night, leaving Vashon with a 7-0 victory against Cascade Christian.
On Friday, April 28, Vashon’s Pirates had a game against Tacoma’s Charles Wright Academy. The game started out intense, with both teams evenly matched. Neither the Pirates nor the Tarriers were dominating, and both teams had even possession of the ball. Vashon had amazing defense in the middle from Elliott Eades and Kieran Enzian. Vashon goalkeeper Richard Rivas was in goal doing a excellent job, as usual, and the pressure was on him.
On offense, Vashon had good runs up the sides from Hinden-Stevenson and Christian White. Shots were made from both teams with it looking like there would be no goals in the first half when at the 39th minute of the game, Vashon’s Sam Briggs had a nice pass to Bogaard, who sent the ball soaring right over the Charles Wright goalkeeper’s head. The first half ended with the Pirates in the lead.
The second half was even more intense with Charles Wright coming on strong, making the Vashon defense work even harder. Just four minutes into the second half, Charles Wright scored to tie the game. Vashon tried to get another goal with shots from Oswald and Gass, and the Pirates defense had amazing clears and defensive tackles all throughout the second half. But, there were no more goals, and the first of two five-minute overtime halves began. Both teams started out with no shots on goal, just a lot of defense from both sides. During the first overtime half, a Vashon player fouled a Charles Wright player and the referee gave Charles Wright a free kick inches from the penalty. Charles Wright got their second goal here from their senior captain only to see him turn around and create his own penalty against Vashon defender Enzian. Charles Wright’s senior captain received his second yellow card and was ejected from the game.
Vashon tried to get opportunities to tie with Charles Wright who was now playing a man down, but the Tarrier defense did not let Vashon in. The game ended with the Pirates losing 2-1.
The Pirates won their last regular season game Monday against Bellevue Christian 2-1 and finished the season second in the Nisqually League behind Charles Wright. Post-season play will begin tomorrow, Thursday, May 4.
— Mari Beytebiere is a Vashon High School junior, girls’ soccer player and manager of the boys’ varsity soccer team
