By ALAN ZOLTIE

For The Beachcomber

The second week of Pirate soccer got off to a tremendous start with a decisive 2-1 victory over Hazen Senior on Wednesday, Sept. 15. The Pirates dominated the game from start to finish, and the score should have reflected that superiority, but Vashon squandered chance after chance, and Hazen’s goalkeeper made several superb saves.

The Pirates opened the scoring after six minutes with a cracking strike from top scorer and center forward Maren Fremstad. With Ana de Guzman and Madison Browne in top form, more chances followed, but it wasn’t until the second half that Vashon’s dominance began to reap benefits, with Lizzie Sutherland, serving as a stalwart in the Vashon defense and Katherine Andrus stepping up to score the Pirates’ second goal to put the game out of Hazen’s reach. Hazen did pull one back with a later penalty kick, but it wasn’t enough, and the Pirates hung on to claim another win.

The following night Vashon took on the highly rated Bonney Lake High School. Vashon was outplayed from start to finish, with Bonney Lake scoring four unanswered goals and missing several more chances. Ray Weller in the Vashon goal was by far the busiest of all the Vashon  players, and if not for one or two spectacular saves, the score could have been worse than the 4-0 result.

Vashon came into Saturday’s game with Issaquah hopeful of a better performance. And with 15 minutes played and no score in the game, the Pirates looked to be heading for a decent result over the much-fancied team from the east of King County, holding their own as the game spread from end to end. That was until the referee missed a clear offside decision and allowed a goal to the opposition that should have been chalked off instantly. Ten minutes later, after yet another refereeing error, Issaquah took the ball down the right side of the field, and even though it had run out of play,  a fact missed by all the officials, the visiting team scored and doubled its lead with a superb cross and shot that beat keeper Weller easily.

After that, the visitors scored another four goals, one in the first half and three in the second, to earn a runaway victory, 7-0, that was fully deserved. For Vashon, Paris Crispin was the outstanding player of the game, and even though Bailey Ormsby missed a second half penalty kick after a fine save by the keeper, the final outcome was never in doubt.

The Pirates play at home again at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 29, at the Vashon Stadium.

— Alan Zoltie is the assistant soccer coach for the girls’ team.