Artesians Comeback Falls Short in 9-8 Loss in Wenatchee

WENATCHEE, Wash. – Willie Spurr and newcomer JC Henson each recorded a brace for the Oly Town Artesians but Wenatchee dominated the second and third quarters and scored a penalty kick goal with 6:39 left in the fourth to cement a 9-8 Western Indoor Soccer League victory at the Wenatchee Valley Sportsplex on Saturday night. The win secured at least a third place finish in the WISL for the Fire while Oly still hasn’t clinched a playoff spot with one game left in league play.

After holding the Fire scoreless over the first 15 minutes and building a 2-0 lead behind goals from Henson and Garrett Lomanto, the Artesians were outscored over the next two quarters 8-2. But goals by Spurr, Issa Hassan and Greg Wolfe pulled Oly to within one, 8-7, halfway through the fourth quarter.

But fouls continued to plague the Artesians when Wenatchee was awarded a penalty kick on a questionable handball in the box called against Brady Espinoza. Elias Lopez lined up and just barely put the ball underneath the hand of Nate Salveson to put the Fire up 9-7 with 6:39 left.

Salveson, who came on as an extra attacker for starting keeper Clint Lothrop to begin the fourth quarter, once again got the Artesians to within a goal, 9-8. He then committed a “last man” foul on a breakaway and was shown a blue card and Wenatchee was awarded another penalty kick. But Salveson made a clutch save and gave Oly multiple chances to tie the game in the final minute, even down two men after yet another blue card.

But the Artesians ran out of time and lost their fourth game in a row after a two game winning streak put them in second place in the WISL at 2-1-0 in early December. They sit in fourth place in the five team WISL, six points ahead of the winless Arlington Aviators. The Aviators have two league games left and need a win over Bellingham on Saturday to keep their playoff hopes alive and setup a do or die game against the Artesians on January 31st.

Lopez recorded a hat trick and Adrian Espinoza and Hernan Mendoza each scored twice for the Fire.

The Artesians return to action on Saturday, January 24th in a friendly against the Oly Indoor All-Stars. First kick is scheduled for 6:00 PM at Olympia Indoor Soccer. They will then wrap up the WISL regular season with a home game against the Arlington Aviators on Saturday, January 31st. That is also a 6:00 PM kick off and tickets can be purchased in advance at http://www.olytownfc.com.

(Note: Wenatchee did not report when goals were scored and by whom in their official stats, hence no information in this post about the order of Fire goal scorers or the time goals were scored other than what was available on the Artesians social media and from photos.)