On Wednesday, Oct. 17, Bellevue hosted the 2011 NWAACC Men’s Soccer champions, the Peninsula Pirates, played at the Starfire Complex in Tukwila. In the first half, the Bulldogs played an effective defensive system that allowed them to keep the Pirates scoreless and to counterattack efficiently whenever Peninsula lost the ball in an attacking play. Even though Bellevue wasn’t able to create a clear scoring opportunity situation for themselves, they were able to limit Peninsula’s attacks until the 56th minute when Daniel Gonzalez, who is fifth in NWAACC scoring this season, found the goal, making the score 1-0 for Peninsula. After that, the Pirates had only one more opportunity to score from a long-side shot, but Bulldog goalkeeper Nick Brown made a great save that sent the ball to a corner kick. “I feel really proud of every single one of my players,” said head coach Tao Shen who had been ejected in the second half after a heated discussion with the referee.
Then, on Saturday, Oct. 20, the Bulldogs suffered another league loss, this time against Olympic who hosted in Bremerton. Even when the Bulldogs started the game aggressively and took advantage of the speed of their wing players to stop Olympic, they were still not able to bring home the desired result. That system of playing led the Bulldogs to score the first goal of the match in the just the third minute when Conner Hall put the ball into the net on an assist by David Lovas, who efficiently crossed the ball after a powerful counterattack. Despite the fact that the Bulldogs kept playing the same way, Olympic luckily found the equalizer only two minutes later, and made it a 1-1 tie at halftime.
In the second half, the Bulldogs continued to dominate the game as Lovas and Hall became real nightmares to Olympic defenders who just couldn’t stop the continuous passes that Bulldogs defenders and midfielders kept sending to the two. The non-stop rain and the cold didn’t keep the Bulldogs from creating dangerous plays, but none could be finalized. It was Olympic that ended up scoring the winning goal in the 84th minute, handing Bellevue another loss. Final score 2-0, Olympic. “We should not have lost this game,” said Bellevue assistant coach, Kiko Mangana, who replaced the suspended Shen as head coach for the game. “I personally believe we missed, for whatever reason, several goals we could have taken.”
The Bulldogs next face Tacoma Titans (4-4-1) on Wednesday, Oct. 24, at 4:00 p.m. in Tacoma.
Last Updated January 30, 2014
