Two league-wide themes so far is the performance of visiting teams and the scoring rate. Road teams are 6-1-0 thus far away from home with the Seattle Stars the only side with a win at home. Scoring is also up from last year, which is surprising considering the season averaged nearly four goals per game last year. Through seven games, the scoring rate is 5.43 per game compared to 3.86 in the first seven a year ago.
Saturday, May 2
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| Ian Farley |
The Force, newcomers to the league from the indoor PASL following the departure of area team WestSound, made their debut in Bremerton. The hosts attempted to rally from a three goal deficit after the break, but came up short in the loss. In addition to a goal and assist from last week's hero Timur Zhividze, the visitors were guided to the win by a pair of players from eastern Washington. Ian Farley (Spokane, WA) scored the first two goals and Nathan Cheney (Clarkston, WA) pushed the lead back to two with 10 minutes remaining.
Scoring Summary - VAN: Ian Farley 21, Farley (Timur Zhividze) 35, Zhividze 38, Nathan Cheney 80; OLY: Abdi Galgalo (Yona Tesfasilase) 59, Colin Ralston 73
Goalkeepers - VAN: Jordan Farr; OLY: Casey Collins
Location - Gordon Field (Bremerton); Attendance - 126
Match Photos [+]
Sunday, May 3
Yakima United 4 :: 0 Bellingham United
The Hoppers and Hammers are an odd pairing. Three games now over two years, and all three have featured margins of victory of four goals or more. Bellingham won the first 8-2 at home and Yakima took the second 6-0. While the score was not as lopsided, it the margin of four was drew surprise for having come on the road.
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| Hector Valdovinos (L) |
Though the result was unexpected to outsiders, it was not for Yakima manager Joshua Vega. "I'm not surprised because I know if we show up and play how I know we can, we can get those kind of results."
"I think it's just kind of a coincidence that we've had our two best results against them. Because clearly we also had our worst against them... sometimes that's soccer," he said of how odd the game results between the two sides has been. "But we can't pat ourselves on the back too much because we have another very tough game this weekend."
Scoring Summary - YAK: Jesse Esquivel (Andres Ruiz) 28, Junior Garcia (penalty) 36, Hector Valdovinos (Garcia) 41, Carlos Gonzalez 90+
Goalkeepers - YAK: Antonio Gonzalez; BEL: Riley Liddle / Mark Pollack
Location - Civic Stadium (Bellingham); Attendance - 450
Spokane Shadow 8 :: 2 Wenatchee FC
It was a back-and-forth first half with the visiting Shadow taking a 3-2 lead into the break. In the second half, though, the defending champions ran away with the game with five unanswered goals en route to the victory. See prior INWsn Game Report [+]
Scoring Summary - SPO: Adam Talley 10, Brady Ulen (Jesse Retan) 20, Sam Engle (Colin Shockman) 37, Sam Engle (Zach Hamer) 47, Wenatchee own goal 50, Nick Ulowetz (Trevan Estrellado) 57, Adam Talley (penalty) 61, Wenatchee own goal 77; WEN: Adrian Espinoza 2, Josh Alvarez (Adrian Espinoza) 26
Goalkeepers - SPO: Jeff Srock / Tony Watters; WEN: Daniel Romero
Location - Mike Hollis Field, WVC (Wenatchee); Attendance: 346
Match Photos [+]
South Sound 3 :: 2 Seattle Stars
The hosts took the initial lead in the contest, but South Sound rallied with a penalty right before intermission and added two more in the second half with Kellan Brown scoring the first and setting up the second before Seattle added another to keep it close.
Scoring Summary - SS: Micah Wenzel (penalty) 45, Kellan Brown (Colton Ronk) 55, Brandon Madsen (Brown) 72; SEA: Anderson Dias 35, Alexis Madari (penalty) 77
Goalkeepers - SS: Chris Kintz; SEA: NA
Location - Starfire Soccer Complex (Tukwila); Attendance: 142
INWsn's THREE STARS IN EPLWA
Kellan Brown (South Sound): After scoring a goal against his former team last week, the former Western Washington University assistant coach and standout played a key role in the win against the Stars. He scored the go-ahead goal in the 55th and set up some needed insurance in the 72nd that proved to be the winner.
Ian Farley (Vancouver Victory): Vancouver picked up its second win thanks to a pair of goals from the graduating Pacific University striker. The Spokane native (Mead HS) scored 21 minutes in and added a second in the 35th.
Adam Talley (Spokane Shadow): The speedy striker from North Idaho College and East Valley HS scored the early equalizer 10 minutes in and used his speed to continually beat his markers and spread the defense, opening holes for the rest of the squad. The future Western Washington player added a second goal in the late stages on a penalty he earned while being dragged down as he beat a defender.
COMING UP IN WEEK THREE:
There are two games east of the Cascades this week with Yakima and Spokane both at home on Saturday. Meanwhile, Wenatchee crosses the mountains as well as the Puget Sound to visit the Olympic Force Sunday.
Yakima lost at home to Sound Sound 2-1 last year in their first meeting on May 4 and then dropped the second one on the road June 28 in Tacoma, 2-0. Both sides have already played Bellingham with lopsided road victories on their ledger for the year. Prior to the match in Yakima, the Hoppers will host a friendly between the Seattle Sounders Women of the W-League and Central Washington University.
Spokane is welcoming a Stars team that has yet to show anything against the Shadow. In their initial meeting June 7 in Tukwila last year the Shadow were 4-1 winners. Then the season ended amidst ugly circumstances when Seattle, near the bottom of the table, showed up in Spokane with nine players and were promptly hammered 11-0.
Though it is their first meeting with newcomers Olympic, the Capitals split the season set with the previous peninsula-based club WestSound, winning 2-0 at home and falling 4-2 on the road late in the year.
Saturday, May 9
South Sound @ Yakima United 6:00
Seattle Stars @ Spokane Shadow 7:00
Sunday, May 10
Bellingham United @ Vancouver Victory 2:00
Wenatchee FC @ Olympic Force 3:00
## EPLWA on INWsn ##
