Despite holding a two goal advantage in each game, the Oly Town Artesians dropped a pair of games on the road over the weekend, losing 5-4 to Yakima United on Saturday and 4-2 to the Seattle Stars on Sunday.
On Saturday, the Artesians traveled to Yakima and fell behind in the first minute when Missael Lopez scored for the Hoppers. But moments later, Jesus Meraz-Rodriguez equalized for Oly Town starting a three goal run that included a 25th minute goal by Angel Trejo-Delgado and a 29th minute goal by Jason Fairhurst.
Williams Pineda got Yakima to within one, 3-2, three minutes later and then they tied the game thanks to a 52nd minute goal by Jose Marquez. Emilio Meraz-Rodriguez gave the Artesians a momentary 4-3 lead in the 62nd but Yakima had the answer again when Cesar Rodriguez scored one minute later.
Unfortunately, a scuffle in the 67th minute resulted in red cards for both Jesus and Emilio Meraz-Rodriguez and Yakima’s Cesar Rodriguez and Oly played the rest of the game down one player with just nine men. Eventually, that came back to bite them and Johnny Ramirez scored the game winner in stoppage time shocking Oly for a 5-4 victory.
On Sunday at French Field in Kent without the Meraz-Rodriguez brothers but with reinforcements in the way of USL veteran Cam Vickers and Oregon State goalkeeper Evan Munn, the Artesians held a 1-0 advantage at halftime thanks to an Alec Zimmerman long range strike in the 25th minute and then built a 2-0 lead after Collin LaBranche header in the 52nd.
But Seattle keeper Julian Tafolla-Cisneros made a series of huge saves that would have extended the Oly lead and kept his team in it until Seattle exploded for four straight goals over the final 27 minutes, taking advantage of the Artesians fatigue after playing in Yakima the day before. Steve Rogers started it off in the 73rd, Cody Buchanan equalized in the 76th, Kees Westra scored the game winner in the 85th and Buchanan added an insurance goal in the 87th to take the 4-2 victory.
The losses dropped the snake bitten Artesians to just 2-6-0 this season, including three stoppage time losses. They also were eliminated from EPLWA playoff contention. But they will finish off the season with two home games and an opportunity to finish strong starting with a game against the Tri-Cities Alliance on Saturday, July 6th at Black Hills High School. First kick is at 6:00.
Oly still has an opportunity to add a trophy to the case when they play in the Washington State Super Cup Final on Friday, July 12th at the Washington Premier Complex in Puyallup. They will face the winner of the Nido Aguila Club America Seattle/Kirkland FC game scheduled for Tuesday.