Olympic League standings (final)
Team Lg. Over.
North Kitsap* 11-1-0 13-1-1
Kingston* 10-2-0 12-3-1
Port Angeles* 7-5-0 10-6-0
Bremerton* 6-6-0 8-9-0
Sequim 6-6-0 7-8-2
North Mason 2-10-0 3-11-0
Olympic 0-12-0 0-15-1
* — advances to districts
In the end, Sequim’s inexperience and a bit of bad luck spelled out the end of the season for the Wolves, who dropped back-to-back games against Bremerton for the Olympic League’s fourth and final berth into the West Central District playoffs.
Bremerton scored on their first three chances in a penalty kick shootout while Sequim missed their first three in a 2-1 Knights playoff tiebreaker victory May 4 in Kingston.
“That was our first foray into PKs (and) it was Bremerton’s third time,” Sequim coach Dave Brasher said. (We) were a little bit nervous.”
Sequim had a chance to lock up that playoff seed earlier in the week but dropped a 2-0 decision to league runner-up Kingston on May 1, then fell to Bremerton in the regular season final, 1-0, on May 3.
“I think we’re a better team skill-wise; they just match up against us really well,” Brasher said.
Bremerton notched a goal with 11 minutes left after a Knight raced down the left side of the pitch and lofted a solid shot past Sequim’s goalie.
“Not much the keeper could do on that,” Brasher said.
“We out-shot them 12-4. Josiah (Urquia, a senior midfielder) hit the crossbar on one. It’s that time of the year; you just don’t get a lot of good chances.”
With identical 6-6 Olympic League marks, Sequim and Bremerton were forced into a mini tie-breaker, a 40-minute game with two, 20-minute halves.
“They were excited to play them again right away,” Brasher said.
The Wolves got their chance the next day — but only after a 30-minute delay caused by lightning that had teams warming up in a nearby gymnasium. Once on the pitch, Sequim jumped ahead after Liam Harris found Konnor Parrish for a score in the ninth minute.
Sequim looked to take a 1-0 lead into halftime but Bremerton sophomore Evan Frankowski took advantage when Sequim couldn’t clear a long Knight throw-in and knotted the score at 1-1.
The second half went scoreless, though Sequim had plenty of chances, Brasher said. Urquia had a pair of shots on goal before coming out of the game with an injury, the Sequim coach said.
With seven minutes remaining, Harris — Sequim’s leading scorer this season — looked to have the game-clincher, but Bremerton’s keeper got a hand on Harris’ shot attempt and deflected it off the crossbar.
After a scoreless overtime, Bremerton hit their marks in the penalty kick session and ended the Wolves’ season with a 7-8-2 overall mark.
“We were inconsistent from midseason on,” Brasher said, after seeing his Wolves held to one goal in its final three games.
”They were just not falling for us. That was part unlucky, part not taking advantage of our chances. Jo (Urquia) has been dinged up, and Liam’s still kind of coming back from being out with an injury.”
Seven seniors done
Sequim saw seven seniors cap their SHS careers last week: Parrish, Urquia, Robert Beeson, Josh Gonzalez, Christian Goodrich, Patrick McCrorie and Christian Rocha.
“A talented but quiet senior class; we’ll miss them,” Brasher said. “It was a fun season. The kids were really good.”
Brasher noted the Wolves return a strong group in 2018, from a quartet of solid sophomores-to-be, an entire starting defensive backfield of juniors-to-be, to an experience corps of seniors-to-be in Harris, Addie Berg, Mathew Craig and Evan James.
“It lines up nice for next year, Brasher said.
Harris led the team with 13 goals while Urquia and freshman Ryan Tolberd had six each. Adrian Funston and Michael McAleer, both freshmen, had five scores apiece.
