Despite a loss to Charles Wright on Thursday, the Vashon High School boys soccer team had a good week.
The Pirates let a 2-0 lead slip away on Monday, then came back to defeat Mount Tahoma 3-2 on a 79th-minute goal by Nick Fox-Edele.
On Tuesday, Vashon got an important 3-0 win at Chimacum while Orting and Cascade Christian, Vashon’s primary rivals for a playoff spot, fought to a scoreless tie.
Then the league-leading Tarriers scored three second-half goals to beat the Pirates.
In the ninth minute of Monday’s non-league home contest with Mount Tahoma, Vashon’s two Nicks teamed up for an early lead. Nick Fox-Edele crossed from the right side and Nick Gass ran in from the left to put the ball in the back of the net.
David Salonen made it 2-0 in the 40th minute with the assist going to Luciano Pizzano.
Mount Tahoma’s Julian Jones got two unassisted goals in the second half, in the 58th and 72nd minutes.
Fox-Edele’s game-winner came off a corner kick by Jackson McFall with Will O’Neil also getting an assist as he banged heads with a Mount Tahoma defender. O’Neil and the defender both left the game.
With O’Neil still recovering from a bruised cheek and Tynan Lazarus nursing an ankle injury from the Monday game, coach Paul Beytebiere took several JV players to Chimacum on Tuesday.
After the Cowboys held the Pirates scoreless for the first half, Beytebiere told the team to take more shots, a tactic that paid off when Gass threaded a free kick past the defense into the net.
Fox-Edele got the second goal on an assist by Ezra Koenig, one of the JV players who made the trip. Jesse Turner got the third goal.
Pirate goalkeeper Robert McGinnis and the Vashon defense registered the shutout.
After the Pirates kept him frustrated in the first half Thursday, Charles Wright’s Dillon Truscott sandwiched an unassisted goal in the 55th minute between assists to Charlie King, 46th minute, and Rafael McCauley, 72nd minute, to run the Tarriers’ season record to 7-1.
Coach Beytebiere emphasized the importance of maintaining the momentum built last week as the Pirates enter the final week of the regular season. Vashon faced Life Christian yesterday, then hosts Cascade Christian tomorrow. The regular season ends with a game at Orting Tuesday, May 4.
On the JV side, on Monday Mount Tahoma had to cancel the JV game at the last minute. Vashon played a full-team intra-squad scrimmage with 11 goals scored between the green and white squads. On Tuesday at Charles Wright, Vashon lost 6-1. On Thursday, Vashon loaned Charles Wright enough players to fill out the Tarriers’ team. The Pirates won 2-0 on unassisted goals by Sjors Steneker and Matt Swope.
