OLYMPIA, Wash. – The Oly Town Artesians built a 5-0 lead in the first quarter and held off a Tacoma Narrows comeback attempt to take a 9-6 victory on Saturday night. Alec Zimmerman collected a hat trick for the Artesians, who improved to 2-1-0 this season in front of a great home opener crowd at The Pavilion at The Evergreen State College.
Oly Town’s player/head coach, PJ Vargas, started the game off right for his squad, scoring his first goal for the Artesians three minutes into the first quarter. Alec Zimmerman scored his first goal of the game three minutes later before goalkeeper JJ Olson got on the board with a long shot that found the back of the net to make it 3-0. Duvan Vaca Trujillo and Collin Tate rounded out the first quarter scoring to make it 5-0 through the first 15 minutes.
Zimmerman notched his second goal of the game at the 9:39 mark of the second quarter to make it 6-0, but the Narrows defense tightened up after that and Tacoma started closing the gap. AJ Nitzel got them on the board with a power play goal and then Nick Mejia scored two of his four goals to close out the first half and get within striking distance, 6-3, at halftime.
Mejia scored two more times to open the second half to get Narrows to within a goal, 6-5, with ten minutes left in the third quarter. Zimmerman answered for Oly Town to make it 7-5 before Jake Dobson added one more for Narrows with a minute left in the third to cut the lead going into the fourth quarter to just one, 7-6.
The Artesians picked up a blue card with 12 seconds left in the third but came up with a clutch power play kill that ended at the 13:12 mark of the fourth. Energized from the penalty kill, Eli Boatright scored a couple minutes later to make it 8-6. Olson and the Artesians defense posted a clean quarter and Tate scored his second goal of the game with less than a minute left to secure the 9-6 victory.
The win moves the Artesians to 2-1-0 on the season, doubling the amount of wins they had over the past two seasons combined. They will travel to Bellingham next Saturday to take on Bellingham United. Kick off is set for 6:35. They will return to Olympia and The Pavilion on Saturday, December 21st for a matchup against the first place Tacoma Stars Reserves at 6:35.
Tacoma Narrows fell to 0-3-0 with the loss. They will face the Snohomish Skyhawks next week.
Oly Town Artesians goals: Alec Zimmerman (3), Collin Tate (2), PJ Vargas, JJ Olson, Duvan Vaca Trujillo, Eli Boatright
Tacoma Narrows goals: Nick Mejia (4), AJ Nitzel, Jake Dobson