OLYMPIA, Wash. – After a freewheeling first half that featured hat tricks by Oly Town’s Jason Fairhurst and Seattle’s Gabe Kellum, the two teams played to a hard fought scoreless second half and the Artesians knocked off the Lone Stars 4-3 at Black Hills High School on Wednesday night. Oly advanced to the semifinals of the Washington State Super Cup for the second time with the win.
The Artesians opened the scoring just 42 seconds into the game when a long cross by Max Hauser found Jason Fairhurst on the back post and he punched it in to give them a 1-0 lead. Oly continued to pour it on after the opening goal with six shots over the next five minutes but could not punch another in until the 23rd minute when Fairhurst scored his second goal off a cross by Trevor Thompson, and the Artesians took a 2-0 lead. Just one minute later, Alec Zimmerman gathered a pass in front of goal and knocked in Oly’s third goal just a moment before he was taken out by Seattle goalkeeper Matthew Samson.
The blistering pace of the game continued, and Seattle cashed in on their only chances of the first half. Gabe Kellum scored his first goal in the 30th minute on a breakaway where he got past the Oly Town defense against the run of play to make it 3-1. But Fairhurst answered with his third goal just two minutes later to get the lead back to three goals at 4-1. Kellum had his own answer in the 36th minute with another breakaway goal to make it 4-2 and then made it 4-3 with a free kick goal in a surprising fourth minute of stoppage time.
The second half was just as intense as the first half, but both team’s defenses tightened up and kept the ball away from attacking position for much of the 45 minutes. Oly keeper Carlos Rodriguez made a nice save on a knuckleball in the 55th minute and Collin LaBranche made an excellent play on Kellum’s lone breakaway chance of the second half, getting in front of him in the 62nd minute to preserve the one goal lead.
Tempers boiled over in the 75th minute after Hauser was knocked out of the game on a heavy challenge minutes earlier and then Thompson took a knock on a two footed challenge that didn’t draw a card. But both teams settled down and had a number of decent chances over the final 15 minutes, but Oly held strong and finished off the 4-3 win.
The Artesians move on to the semifinals and will face the winner of the Kirkland FC/Seattle Sporting International game to be played this weekend, right after our women take on Kirkland at Wilburton Hill Park in Bellevue. Kick off of the women’s game is at noon. The men will return to EPLWA play at 6:00 PM on Saturday, taking on Tacoma Narrows at the SERA Complex in South Tacoma.
GOALS: ‘1 – Jason Fairhurst (Max Hauser) – Oly Town, ’23 – Fairhurst (Trevor Thompson) – Oly Town, ’24 – Alec Zimmerman – Oly Town, ’30 – Gabe Kellum – Seattle, ’32 – Fairhust (Thompson) – Oly Town, ’36 – Kellum – Seattle, ’45+4 – Kellum – Seattle
LINEUP: 1 – Carlos Rodriguez (GK), 2 – Manny Nicasio, 7 – Connor Desmond (’65), 8 – Allen Escalante, 10 – Alec Zimmerman, 11 – Trevor Thompson, 13 – Dylan Chavez, 14 – Jason Fairhurst (’79), 15 – Nate Boatright, 16 – Collin LaBranche, 17 – Max Hauser (’68)
SUBS: 3 – Amri Mwenyeheri, 4 – Jake Zimmerman (’65), 5 – Tino Pantaleon (’79), 6 – Pablo Ramos, 9 – Angel Trejo-Delgado, 12 – Joe DiCarlo (’68), 33 – Sawyer Price