You don’t need two heads to score two hat tricks, but Vashon’s opponents last week can be excused if they thought there were two Will O’Neils.
O’Neil scored two hat tricks in last week’s two games to lead the Pirates to victory at Life Christian, 3-0, on Tuesday, and over Cascade Christian, 3-1, at home on Thursday.
In a frustrating first half Tuesday, Vashon dominated play but couldn’t put a shot anywhere but in the Eagle goalkeeper’s hands. In the first 10 minutes of the
second half, Life Christian mounted a surprisingly strong attack, including a shot that skimmed the crossbar and fortunately bounced up and out of play.
O’Neil, starting on defense, received a yellow card late in the first half for a late tackle and, per the rules, left the game, sitting out the last few minutes of the half and the early part of the second half. When coach Paul Beytebiere re-inserted O’Neil, he moved him to striker.
O’Neil responded with a perfectly timed run on a pass from Elias Weston and his first goal, in the 64th minute. Less than a minute later he stole the ball from a defender for goal number two.
With rain pouring down and the wind blowing diagonally across the field against the Pirates, it looked as if the scoring was over, but in the seventh minute of stoppage time O’Neil took a cross from Nick Fox-Edele for goal number three.
Thursday’s game was senior night, the final home game for seniors O’Neil, Webb, Weston, Josh Bacchus, Michael Butz, Christian Hasson, Tynan Lazarus, Robert McGinnis, David Salonen and exchange student Alessandro Rossi.
The Pirates had tied Cascade Christian earlier in the season and were determined not to let that happen again.
O’Neil started at striker and with just four minutes off the clock, took a feed from Fox-Edele and worked his way to the left post where he crossed the ball past the Cougar’s keeper inside the far post for a 1-0 Pirate lead.
In the 12th minute, Webb tapped the ball to O’Neil for his second goal of the night, and the Pirates took a 2-0 lead into the break. The Cougars refused to roll over and play dead, and Brus Layson got an unassisted goal only six minutes into the second half.
Pirate defender Jesse Hazzard saved what would have been the tying goal when he cleared the ball off the goal line from a Cougar shot. O’Neil completed his second hat trick of the week in the 68th minute with Fox-Edele again getting the assist.
The two wins left Vashon tied with Orting for second place in the 1A Nisqually League. The two teams tied in their first meeting at Vashon and were to play at Orting yesterday to settle second and third place in the league. Cascade Christian will finish fourth for the final playoff slot. Playoffs start this week with the pairings determined by the result of yesterday’s game and Port Townsend’s final placing in the Olympic League.
JV squeaks to a 3-2 win
The Vashon JV team had only one game, on Thursday against Cascade Christian. The Pirates won 3-2 on a last-minute goal by Ezra Koenig.
The Cougars’ Yeongi Nam scored unassisted in the 13th minute. Sam Crosby tied it up in the 43rd minute with Koenig getting the assist, but Cascade’s Brian Nam answered in the 44th minute with Cheol Han getting the assist.
Koenig tied it up again in the 54th minute. Andy Hennessey had the assist. Koenig got the game winner with a sliding shot, going under three Cougar defenders.
— Rik Forschmiedt writes a blog about Vashon sports. Visit it at blogs.vashonbeachcomber.com/sidelines/ for the latest on the Pirate soccer team’s playoff schedule.
