5/4/16
Bellarmine Prep 2, Olympia 1
(Olympia, WA) The Olympia Bears were in a must win situation but that wasn’t enough they also needed the Stadium Tigers to lose to Timberline to leap-frog Stadium into the District Tournament or their season would be over. The Bellarmine Prep Lions had nothing to gain or lose in this match as they had sealed up the Championship and the #1 seed into the District Tournament.
The Lions were the aggressors early on and played much of the 1st half on the Olympia side of the field but starting keeper Idean Labib with the defensive back line were rock solid denying several attempts. Olympia would continue to battle and have a few solid chances as well but Lions keeper Sean Carlin was up to the task as well. It appeared we were on our way to a 0-0 halftime score when the Bears found a crack and Arvean Labib fired one into the far side of the goal past Carlin on an assist from TJ Wezenberg and we would go to the break with the Bears up 1-0.
The two teams continued their aggressive play and the physicality picked up to the point that the Lions subbed in some back-up players for starters. As the 2nd half wound down the final score from the Stadium-Timberline score came in as a 1-1 draw which was enough for the Tigers to clinch 3rd place and the final District Tournament entry. But the Bears certainly wanted to finish with a win and it looked like they would as the match entered stoppage time.
Bellarmine Prep never stopped playing though and scored the tying goal off the foot of Jordan Williams. Williams re-directed a shot off the crossbar and into the net for a 1-1 tie. About a minute later, still in stoppage time, Robert Nurmi struck paydirt with a nifty goal and the Lions pulled off a remarkable comeback win scoring 2 goals in stoppage time to knock off the Bears 2-1.
Our Tommy Lowe of Greene Realty Players of the Game went to B-Prep’s Jordan Williams and to Olympia’s Andrew Hoang. Our ProActive Physical Therapy Play of the Game was awarded to Robert Nurmi for the game winning shot.
Photo Gallery
