OLYMPIA, Wash. – On Saturday, December 4th, the Artesians traveled up North to Bellingham to face off against Bellingham United. The game started off alright for Oly Town, but eight minutes into the first quarter, #12, Kevin Flavin, put one in the back of the net for Bellingham. Bellingham took the lead 1-0 in the first quarter, but this was just one of many goals to follow.
Within the first two minutes of the second quarter Bellingham #10, Christian Caro, scored his first goal of the night. As the Oly Town defense fought hard, Bellingham took shot after shot, until finally Caro put one in for his second of the night. A lot of time was spent in the Artesians half for the last three minutes of the second quarter. Bellingham capitalized on a few Oly Town mistakes and pulled out two more goals before halftime.
It was a scoreless first half for the Artesians as they went into half time down 0-5.
Goalkeeper Nate Salveson came in for Matt Stalnik to start off the second half for Oly Town. Salveson was put on the spot just two minutes into half when a miscommunicated pass lead straight to the feet of #9 from Bellingham. This resulted in a goal for Bellingham and just moments later, #20 took advantage of another bad pass and lasered one into the back of the Artesians net from just a few feet out. With five minutes left in the third quarter, Oly Town was down 0-7.
Bellingham wasn’t done yet. #10, Caro, scored his third of the night bringing the score to 8-0. With three minutes left in the third quarter, Manny Nicasio took a free kick that was blocked and #12, Kevin Falvin from Bellingham took the ball cross field in attempt to score his second of the night. Fortunately, for the Artesians, that shot was a miss. A beautiful layoff to Bellingham #5 resulted in a goal to finish off the quarter 9-0.
Oly Town came out strong in the fourth quarter. Both teams went scoreless for the first 11 minutes. As both teams continued to battle it out, Manny Nicasio took a corner for Oly Town. Nicasio’s ball in was placed straight to Collin Labranche’s feet who scored Oly Town’s first goal of the night!
A layoff moments later from Nate Murphy to Collin Tate resulted in yet another Oly Town goal and move the score up 2-9.
In the last few minutes of the game, #3 from Bellingham United scored the final goal of the night leaving the score at the final buzzer 10-2.
The Artesians will look for revenge come January when they face off against Bellingham United again on their home turf at the Evergreen State College Pavilion.
Next Match: Saturday, December 11th at 7PM. Location | Evergreen State College Pavilion. Get Directions Here.
Oly Town Artesians goals: Collin Labranche & Collin Tate.