SportsRecreation
PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2012
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Pirates: Soccer squads win trophies CONTINUED FROM B1
ties. And one of those came from Afoa, who had two goals in the semifinals and a school-record 23 goals on the season. “Briana Afoa missed an easy shot she doesn’t normally miss,” Anderson said. Peninsula’s equalizing goal came at 60 minutes. Afoa took a penalty shot and got it over the wall of Spokane players and over the goalkeeper’s head but the ball hit the crossbar and came straight down in front of the goal. Miner was right there, though, for Peninsula and she put her body into it, nudging the ball 2 feet into the back of the net. “It seems like she really played that well,” Anderson said. “It wasn’t a lucky shot. She was in great position, and she used the front of her body to push the ball into the goal.”
The Peninsula teams were ranked No. 1 in NWAACC most of the year and top 11 in the country. They proved they belong there, even though it wasn’t easy going in the championship matches.
Two-year domination The Pirate men finished the season 22-1-1 overall, the second year of concluding the year with just one loss. It is also the second consecutive season that the Pirates have been ranked No. 1 in NWAACC from the preseason polls all the way to the end of the season. After beating Highline for the NWAACC crown in 2010, the Pirates went undefeated in 2011 before losing in the NWAACC semifinals. There would be no repeat of that semifinal loss this year as the Pirates shut out Edmonds 2-0 in the semifinals Saturday at Starfire Complex. In Sunday’s title game, freshman striker Martinez — who had a standout Final Four tournament with two goals and an assist — scored the winning goal against Walla Walla with 3 minutes to go in the game on a Daniel Gonzalez assist. “Alex’s goal was a great individual effort,” Peninsula coach Andrew Chapman said. Martinez took the pass from Gonzalez and took the ball into the box where he got the defense going one way while he went the other and put the goal in the bak of the net. Not only did the Pirates go the year ranked No. 1 in NWAACC, but they also made it to No. 11 in the national poll. “I’m very proud of the guys,” Chapman said. “They have worked very hard, and they deserved it.” Peninsula sophomore goalkeeper Guilherme Avelar earned the shutout, his 11th of the year. Avelar also shared two other shutouts and holds the school record for shutouts in a season.
Losing 12 sophomores JESSE MAJOR/FOR PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
Alex Martinez shoots the winning goal against Walla Walla in the NWAACC men’s soccer championship game at Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila.
Zak Naylor of Edmonds received two yellow cards and a red card in the semifinal game, and then Walla Walla and Peninsula had two yellow cards each and a red-card ejection apiece in the title contest. “It’s always physical,” Chapman said about Final Four weekends. Peninsula’s Jake Forrester and Walla Walla’s Daniel Romero received a yellow card each while Gonzalez and Walla Walla’s Connor Cravens were given red-card fighting ejections after a face-off coming about a minute after Gonzalez dished out the assist to Martinez. Gonzalez was selected as the NWAACC West Division player of the year just last week. The Pirates, who went 12-0-1 in conference play and tied with the best NWAACC record with Clark College of Vancouver, Wash., will lose six sophomores from this championLet’s get physical ship team. That group includes It was a physical weekend for the men’s team. Gonzalez and Avelar.
Women’s title The Peninsula women captured their first NWAACC title after losing in the 2011 championship game to three-time champion Walla Walla. The Pirates finish the 2012 year at 22-1-1 overall and 15-1-0 in conference, by far the best NWAACC record. They were ranked No. 1 in NWAACC and No. 10 in the country. The Pirates ripped Everett 3-1 in the semifinals but had their hands full with fellow powerhouse Spokane in the championship game. Like the men, the Pirate women had a tough physical game in Sunday’s final. “It was a very physical game but championship games are like that because they are emotional,” coach Kanyon Anderson said. “People are throwing their bodies into things.” Peninsula’s Kendra Miner and Deidra Woodward received a yellow card each while Spokane’s Laura Seymour was ejected with a red card in regulation. That meant that the Sasquatch had to play with
one less player for the final 10 minutes of regulation and through the overtime period. But Spokane was able to keep the Pirates out of the goal during that time to get the game to a penalty-kick shootout. “They went defensive [after receiving the red card],” Anderson said. The Sasquatch started the game with two strikers but ended the game with only one striker, putting everybody else in back to keep Peninsula from scoring. “I don’t know but I assume Spokane just wanted to get the game to penalty kicks,” Anderson said. That would make the playing field a little more level in Spokane’s view because both teams would have the same amount of players making penalty kicks. But Anderson knew that the Pirates would have the advantage in that situation. “I knew we would win a shootout because of [goalkeeper] Denae Brooks,” Anderson said. And sure enough, Brooks
made two outstanding diving saves as the Pirates won the shootout 3-2. Making the shootout goals for Peninsula were West Division player of the year Afoa, left-footed Sydney Bullington and Shelbi Vienna-Hallam. But the key was the play of Brooks in the goal. “Denae Brooks is exceptional at penalty kicks,” Anderson said. “I have never seen a female soccer goalkeeper saving goals at the rate she does. “She’s quick and she has long arms.” Brooks has eight shutouts on the season, tied for third in NWAACC. Spokane got on the scoreboard first on a penalty kick by Gaby Kennedy at 16 minutes. The score was 1-0 at halftime but Anderson wasn’t worried. “I knew that we could get at least one goal in the second half,” he said. That’s because the Pirates were dominating pressure on the goal with eight corner kicks to Spokane’s two, and just missing a couple of good opportuni-
The Pirates, playing in the championship game the second year in a row, will lose six starters and 12 players from this team. “We had an outstanding sophomore class,” Anderson said. Peninsula went 40-4-3 the past two years. “We will definitely be a different team next year,” Anderson said. But that’s not to say the Pirates won’t be stellar again in 2013. After all, Afoa is just a freshman and her scoring touch will be back. The Pirates will have two starting center-backs, two starting central midfielders coming back along with the one starting striker. “We will still be pretty strong,” Anderson said. “And we have a lot of players ready to take over starting roles.” Anderson will take a short break off from recruiting and then get back on the recruiting trail. He said he expects to have several players ready to sign up on official letterof-intent day in January. Meanwhile, both the men’s and women’s soccer teams plan to bask in the glory of NWAACC championships.
Maryland leaving ACC to join Big Ten in 2014 THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Choosing to look toward the future rather than honor the past, Maryland joined the Big Ten on Monday, bolting from the Atlantic Coast Conference in a move driven by the school’s budget woes. Maryland was a charter member of the ACC, which was founded in 1953. Tradition and history, however, were not as important to school President Wallace D. Loh as the
opportunity to be linked with the prosperous Big Ten. “By being a member of the Big Ten Conference, we are able to ensure financially stability for Maryland athletics for decades to come,” Loh said, speaking at a news conference with Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany and Athletic Director Kevin Anderson. Loh and other school officials involved in the decision decided that the potential money to be made
in the Big Ten was more significant than the $50 million exit fee and the tradition associated with belonging to the same conference for 59 years. “I am very aware that for many of our Terps fans and alumni, their reaction is stunned and disappointed. But we will always cherish the memories, the rivalries, the tradition of the ACC,” Loh said. “For those alumni and Terp fans, I will now say this: I made this decision as
best as I could . . . to do what is best for the University of Maryland for the long haul.” Maryland eliminated seven sports programs earlier this year, and Loh said the shift to the Big Ten could provide enough of a windfall to restore some of those sports. Delany said Maryland’s entry was approved unanimously by the conference’s 12 presidents. “Quite honestly, they were giddy,” Delany said. “Maybe some people Fear
the Turtle. We embrace the Turtle.” Maryland will become the southernmost member of the Big Ten member starting, in July 2014. Rutgers is expected follow suit by Tuesday, splitting from the Big East and making it an even 14 schools in the Big Ten, though Delany would not confirm that. But he had no problem explaining why the Big Ten would be interested in
stretching its boundaries from the Midwest. “We realize that all of the major conferences are slightly outside of their footprint,” Delany said. “We believe that the association is one that will benefit both of us.” For Maryland, the move was not entirely based on athletics. Maryland will join the Committee on Institutional Cooperation, a consortium of world-class research institutions.
Sounders: Seattle to make offseason changes CONTINUED FROM B1 2013, and his scoring prowess proved potentially more The striker finished valuable than what any of with 17 goals in all compe- Seattle’s three current destitions and was easily Seat- ignated players bring. tle’s most consistent scor“I couldn’t ask to be on a ing threat. better team, in a better His play also earned environment, or in a more him a spot back with the professional organization,” U.S. men’s national team, Johnson said. yet another notch in rein“We have a good coach, vigorating his career. a good group of guys, and if Johnson was on a oneit wasn’t for these guys, I year deal with the Soundwouldn’t be in the position I am in today. ers with a club option for
“Coming in as the new guy is difficult. Sometimes it takes you a season to adapt to the type of play that they like to play, but we had a good group of guys, and they have been spot on with me every day.” What Seattle does with its designated player spots could be the big offseason question. Fredy Montero has grown up in Seattle, but has failed to show up in
the playoffs during his career. Montero has never scored in the playoffs and only picked up his first postseason point when he assisted on the winning goal in the conference semifinals against Real Salt Lake. Despite his creativity, Mauro Rosales has been slowed by injuries during the playoffs each of the last two years.
Midfielder Christian Tiffert’s best performance came on Sunday night, but left some wondering where that had been since his arrival. “The general message to the team was we have to eliminate those three-nothing losses in the playoffs because we’re showing that we can win playoff games,” Schmid said. “That was the general message to them, to under-
stand that we did make progress this year and we went one step further, but obviously at this stage we’re all disappointed. “We need to make sure that the energy with which we played tonight is the energy we play with all the time. Sometimes that’s hard over the course of a 34-game season, but it’s something that we need to bring all the time.”
Poll: UCLA makes top 25 for first time this year CONTINUED FROM B1 Top 10. Kentucky fell three places after losing to Baylor Penn State moved up by 34 points last week. The Terrapins dropped five three spots to sixth. The Nittany Lions were spots after falling to Saint followed by Louisville, Joseph’s by one. California, West VirGeorgia, Kentucky and Maryland to round out the ginia, Oklahoma, Purdue
and Texas were the next five. Ohio State climbed four places to 16th. The Buckeyes were followed by Vanderbilt, St. John’s, UCLA and Tennessee. Oklahoma State, Kansas, Nebraska, Dayton and
North Carolina round out the poll. UCLA, Kansas, Dayton and North Carolina all moved into the Top 25 for the first time this season. Delaware, Texas A&M, Miami and Georgetown fell
out. Dayton has only been ranked once before, for two weeks in 2009. The Flyers (4-0) have already knocked off DePaul and Vanderbilt this season. “We are honored that people are recognizing what
our coaches and players have done here at Dayton,” Flyers coach Jim Jabir said. “If we are able to be ranked at the end of the season in the final poll that would truly be an amazing thing.”