Cashmere Rubs Artesians the Wrong Way in 9-8 Loss to Bellingham

Justin La Torre

TUMWATER, Wash. – For the second game in a row, the Oly Town Artesians and Bellingham United went to the fourth quarter tied. And for the second game in a row, Bellingham came out on top, this time thanks to two Nick Cashmere goals in the final four minutes to lead the Hammers to a 9-8 win in front of a boisterous crowd at Olympia Indoor Soccer on Saturday night.

Cashmere’s two fourth quarter goals gave him a hat trick, one of four hat tricks on the night. Justin La Torre and Willie Spurr each scored three times for the Artesians while Capital High School grad Gabriele Zaccagnini collected his three goals in the first half against his hometown team.

The two teams exploded for seven goals in the first 15 minutes of the game. Spurr and Zaccagnini scored the first four goals of the game within a minute of each other’s goals. Spurr opened up the scoring in the first minute but Zaccagnini answered right back with a goal at the 13:08 mark. Spurr then scored again at the 12:23 mark and less than 30 seconds later Zaccagnini tied it up at 2-2 with 11:43 left to play in the first quarter.

Four whole minutes would pass before Cashmere put the Hammers up 3-2 but Spurr set up goals by both Greg Wolfe and Justin La Torre to finish off the first quarter with the Artesians up 4-3.

Andrew Weishaar and Justin La Torre traded goals in the first five minutes of the second quarter before Zaccagnini scored his third goal with 2:54 left in the first half and the two teams would go to the locker room tied at five.

Weishaar put the Hammers up 6-5 in the first minute of the third quarter on a power play goal that was leftover from a blue card shown to the Artesians at the end of the first half. Nine minutes later La Torre scored his third of the game to draw the Artesians even and set up yet another fourth quarter battle between Oly and Bellingham.

Unlike the game on December 20th in Bellingham, the Artesians struck first in the fourth quarter. Spurr scored an incredible goal from an impossible angle on the left side that gave the Artesians a 7-6 lead with 11:54 left to play. Oly held onto the lead for nine minutes but Bellingham scored the next three goals to put the game away. Kellan Brown tied the game with 4:45 left and Cashmere put the Hammers up for good with a goal at the 3:08 mark and a power play goal that proved to be the game winner with 1:53 left.

Wolfe scored his second goal of the game with 16 seconds left to get the Artesians to within one and Oly had two chances in the final five seconds to tie it up but couldn’t drive one home and Bellingham held on to the 9-8 victory.

The win moved Bellingham to 3-1-1 (10 points) in Western Indoor Soccer League play while the Artesians dropped to 2-3-0 (6 points). Wenatchee knocked off Arlington 9-8 on Saturday night to move into third place in the WISL while Oly dropped into the fourth spot, two games ahead of winless Arlington for the final playoff spot.

The Artesians hit the road for the next two weeks traveling to Tacoma next Saturday to face the first place Stars at 1:00 PM at the Tacoma Soccer Center. The start time has been moved to the afternoon to avoid conflict with the Seattle Seahawks playoff game scheduled for 5:15 that evening.

Oly Town returns to their home pitch at Olympia Indoor Soccer on Saturday, January 24th for a friendly against the Oly Indoor All-Stars. First kick is scheduled for 6:00 PM. Advance tickets can be purchased at http://www.olytownfc.com.

SUMMARY
Oly Town Artesians (2-3-0) vs. Bellingham United (3-1-1)
 Date: 1/3/2015 Location: Olympia Indoor Soccer

Goals by period       1  2  3  4  Tot
 -------------------------------------
 Bellingham...........3  2  1  3   9
 Oly Town.............4  1  1  2   8

SCORING:
Oly Town Artesians:
 Willie Spurr...........14:18 - 1st Quarter | (1-0)
 Willie Spurr...........12:23 - 1st Quarter | (2-1)
 Greg Wolfe..............4:35 - 1st Quarter | (3-3)
 Justin La Torre.........2:41 - 1st Quarter | (4-3)
 Justin La Torre........12:03 - 2nd Quarter | (5-4)
 Justin La Torre.........5:14 - 3rd Quarter | (6-6)
 Willie Spurr...........11:54 - 4th Quarter | (7-6)
 Greg Wolfe..............0:16 - 4th Quarter | (8-9)

Bellingham United 
 Gabriele Zaccagnini....13:08 - 1st Quarter | (1-1)
 Gabriele Zaccagnini....11:43 - 1st Quarter | (2-2)
 Nick Cashmere...........7:31 - 1st Quarter | (3-2)
 Andrew Weishaar........14:10 - 2nd Quarter | (4-4)
 Gabriele Zaccagnini.....2:54 - 2nd Quarter | (5-5)
 Andrew Weishaar........14:33 - 3rd Quarter | (6-5)
 Kellan Brown............4:45 - 4th Quarter | (7-7)
 Nick Cashmere...........3:08 - 4th Quarter | (8-7)
 Nick Cashmere...........1:53 - 4th Quarter | (9-7)

Goalkeepers:
Oly Town - Clint Lothrop (56 minutes), Nate Salveson (4 minutes)