Vikings let 2-0 lead slip against Trojans

POULSBO — For almost one half of soccer Friday night, it looked as if the North Kitsap Vikings and the Olympic Trojans had switched uniforms. The Vikings were hosting the high-scoring Trojans, but for almost 40 minutes it was the Vikings who were doing all the damage, while keeping Olympic off the scoreboard.

POULSBO — For almost one half of soccer Friday night, it looked as if the North Kitsap Vikings and the Olympic Trojans had switched uniforms.

The Vikings were hosting the high-scoring Trojans, but for almost 40 minutes it was the Vikings who were doing all the damage, while keeping Olympic off the scoreboard.

The Vikings scored a pair of early goals but failed to keep the Trojans at bay, and the teams ended the game knotted at 2-2.

The Trojans — led by quick forward Joel Nelson — had scoring opportunities early in the game, but NK goalie Brenden Phillips and the rest of the Viking defenders shut them out.

In one eye-popping early sequence, a weaving Nelson fired, only to have Phillips stop the speeding shot.

A Viking defender swooped in to clear the ball, but seconds later Olympic was on the attack again.

This time Nelson passed, kicking the ball to forward Dan Dreany.

Phillips snuffed the shot, then dived and stopped Dreany’s second shot, which he, Dreany, fired off a ricochet.

When North Kitsap wasn’t walling off the Trojans, they found the back of Olympic’s goal.

Gus Zadra, dragged down in front of the goal, fired a penalty kick and made it, giving the Vikings a 1-0 lead.

Seconds later, Bryan Kulp whipped a pass to a cutting Oscar Hernandez, who fired a shot into Olympic’s goal to give NK a 2-0 lead.

But after building the lead, the Vikings couldn’t hang on.

Nelson was slowed by North Kitsap’s defense, but he finally scored with only .15 left in the half and cut North’s lead in half.

And Olympic erased the lead completely when co-captain Brian Meherg fired a 35-yard shot that made it past Phillips when the keeper momentarily slipped on the wet grass.

Phillips and the Vikings kept Olympic at arm’s length the rest of the game, with the goalie stopping Nelson or any of the other Trojans from grabbing the lead.

Olympic came close — several late shots caromed off the top bar — but North had its chances as well; Shane Morrison found Colton Bangs in front of the goal, but the shot was stopped; a Zadra pass found Donnie Thompson , but that shot, too, didn’t make it past the goalie.

The game ended with a tie.

“We played well,” head coach Chris Heins said of the Vikings. “We had great keeping tonight; there were just a couple of fluke goals by Olympic.”

“Brenden was amazing,” Zadra said, agreeing with his coach’s analysis of the keeper’s work.

After their tie with the Trojans (5-2-1, 2-2-1 L), the Vikings (2-2-4 and 1-2-2) will next play Port Angeles April 9.

The game will be played in North Kitsap.

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