OLYMPIA, Wash. – The Oly Town Artesians 2019 outdoor season came to an end this weekend with two losses, a 3-0 loss to Nido Aguila Club America Seattle in the final of the Washington State Super Cup, and then a 5-0 loss to PacNW SC in the final Evergreen Premier League game of the season.
After a nice run to get to the final including a 7-0 win over the ISC Gunners and a hard fought 1-0 win over the Grays Harbor Gulls, the Artesians found themselves in a massive 2-0 hole less than five minutes into the game because of two defensive miscues that Nido forward Casey Woodruff cleaned up and scored on.
Oly Town had an opportunity to cut Nido’s lead to just one midway through the first half, but Nido keeper Nate Salveson made a save on a penalty kick by Collin Tate to keep it a two goal game. In the second half, Jason Fairhurst fought through fouls and physical play and nearly scored but his shot ricocheted off of the crossbar, post, Salveson and an Artesians player without somehow crossing the goal line. Nido added a goal a little while later and coasted to the 3-0 victory and claim the first Super Cup.
The Artesians hoped for some redemption on Saturday with PacNW SC in town, but the game quickly became the Tyler Bjork show. The EPLWA’s all time leading scorer made mincemeat of the Oly defense scoring three times in the first half to increase his 2019 total to 11 goals and his career total to 65. Jasper Malamud scored twice in the second half and the PacNW defense allowed just one weak shot on goal all game and won handily. They improved to 6-2-1 in their first season in the EPLWA and claimed the #2 seed out of the Rainer Conference.
Meanwhile, an Oly Town season that started with high hopes and anticipation that turned into a season of transition and discovery came to an end at 3-7-0, the team’s worst finish since joining the EPLWA in 2017.
The Artesians now set their sights on their 2019-2020 Western Indoor Soccer League season set to begin in November. Stay tuned to www.olytownfc.com, our Facebook page or Twitter page for updates.