Soccer: North Thurston scores twice late to eke out a draw with Peninsula

4/20/23

Peninsula 2, North Thurston 2

(Lacey, WA) The Peninsula Seahawks and North Thurston Rams were both looking for a big win coming into this match. The Rams were sitting in 3rd place with a 6-3-1 league mark just a half game behind Central Kitsap and a half game in front of Timberline. The Seahawks came in with a 4-6 league record and needed a win to climb back in the race for post season.

Both teams had to deal with the weather of howling, swirling winds, rain and cold temperatures. The wind was so strong it flipped over one of the heavy portable shelters during warm-ups and continued to be a factor throughout the match. Both teams also were playing a little short with Peninsula having only 2 subs available and the Rams with 3.

As the match began Peninsula held the possession advantage and put up more shots but Rams keeper Glenn Kolibas and his backline of Landen Sexton, Isaac Taylor and Kaiden Woods did not break denying the Seahawks on several attack opportunities. Peninsula was led offensively by Sam Sutherland, Frankie Cross, Aidan Haro, Dylan Ladds and Nolan Uffens and they did challenge the Rams defense often but to no avail until late in the 1st half.

Aidan Haro would break through in the 37th minute when he tapped in a header sent to him from Nolan Uffens who got the assist. Uffens recieved the pass from another header into the 18 and then set up Haro to give the Seahawks a 1-0 lead.

The Rams offense sent Farhan Moustafa and Eli Taylor as the deep strikers getting a few good chances in the 1st half but some mistimed breaks leading to a couple of offsides and solid defense by substitute keeper Brayden Bouchard including a quick counter attack after the Peninsula goal. Bouchard knocked a dead on shot down and denied the Rams the equalizer and the Seahawks went into the halftime break with a 1-0 lead.

In the 2nd half it didn’t take long for the Seahawks to add to their lead when Frankie Cross pulled in a deep pass, tapped it to himself and then sent it over to Brady Laybourn who bulled his way into a 1-on-1 with Kolibas and knocked it home for a 2-0 lead in the 43rd minute.

Peninsula came out hard early in both halves and with limited subs took a toll and in the final 20 minutes or so North Thurston began to turn up the heat when a deep pass bounced off a Peninsula defender right to Ameer Asmath who then split defenders and broke free for a 1-on-1 with Bouchard and he pounded it home into the upper left side to make it 2-1 in the 59th minute.

Asmath would strike again in the 72nd minute when Landen Sexton fed him a pass to the right side and he quickly fired it into the back of the net and the Rams tied it with 8 minutes to play plus stoppage time.

Peninsula would regroup and ended up with more possession time in the final minutes but neither team would give in and the match ended in a 2-2 tie. The tie really did not help Peninsula in the standings a win would have been huge but the tie did not really help the Rams a lot but they did maintain their 3rd place position.

Our MVP’s of the game went to Peninsula’s Brady Laybourn and for North Thurston Ameer Asmath. North Thurston will next host Yelm on Monday and Peninsula is at home as well against River Ridge.

Link to watch full broadcast is here