The North Kitsap Vikings boys soccer team pulled out a district semifinal win 2-1 on the road against Fife May 15, thanks to two crucial goals late in the second half.

The No. 3-seed Vikings will now match up with familiar foe No. 1 seed Bainbridge for the district championship May 17 at 3 p.m. at Olympic High School. Both of NK’s league losses this season came against the Spartans.

Neither team could get much of anything going for the first twenty minutes of the first half, with both teams struggling to generate shots on goal. The ball spent a majority of the time in NK territory, with the Vikings rarely pushing the ball into Fife territory.

The Vikings played aggressive defense, with senior Ethan Florent forcing multiple Fife turnovers and giving NK opportunities to get the ball down the field.

NK began to generate some shots on goal with fifteen minutes remaining in the half, procuring a two-minute offensive possession. However, the Vikings could not produce any scores. Lopez landed an up-close-and-personal opportunity for a score, but couldn’t get the ball in the back the net.

Both teams began to amp up the offensive tempo closing in on halftime, but neither team could put up a score.

“The first half we spent a lot of time trying to figure out a way to break em’ down,” Lopez said, who scored late in the match. “In the second half, we started pushing because we knew we were running out of time.”

The offensive intensity from both sides began to increase in the beginning of the second half, with both teams generating quick shots on goal.

NK goalkeeper Andrew Knott prevented two goals from getting into the back of the net, keeping the game locked at zero with 25 minutes remaining in the game.

Lopez had an opportunity on a fast-break attempt to put in the first score of the game with 21 minutes left, but couldn’t get a shot off.

Nonetheless, Lopez managed to break the drought for both squads by pushing in a score, giving NK a 1-0 lead with 9:03 remaining in the game. Ethan Peck followed up the Lopez goal with one of his own, not even three minutes later, increasing NK’s lead to two with six minutes remaining.

“I just saw the ball come in, chested it to my right foot, [and] placed it in the bottom left-hand corner,” Lopez said of his goal.

“He’s [Lopez] a goal-scoring machine,” Viking coach Greg St. Peter said. “He’s been a great contributor in our program for the past four years.”

Fife ended up scoring a goal late in the contest, but it was ultimately too late.

In other district soccer action involving Kitsap teams May 15, Central Kitsap lost to Heritage in the 3A championship 3-1, but still qualified for state.

In 1A action, Klahowya secured a state bid by beating Seattle Christian 1-0 in a loser-out match.