It was the most exciting and action-packed weekend of the season for the Tacoma Stars and their fans. With a win-or-else Western Indoor Soccer League semifinal match on Saturday, Feb. 7 and a professional Major Arena Soccer League match the following day, the Stars put together some of their finest indoor soccer of the season when it counted the most.
The Stars defeated the fourth-seed Oly Town Artesians 10-5 in front of a near-capacity crowd at the Tacoma Soccer Center and will play host to the second-seed Bellingham United Hammers (6-2-1) for the WISL championship on Saturday, Feb. 14. First kick at the Tacoma Soccer Center is set for 7:30 p.m.
Since purchasing the pro MASL spot from the folded Seattle Impact nearly a month ago, the Tacoma Stars organization has been performing a juggling act trying to field two separate indoor soccer teams on the same weekends. As a matter of fact, they fielded three teams each of the last two weekends as the affiliated South Sound FC club took over for the defunct Tacoma Galaxy in the Premier Arena Soccer League and hosted two games.
Sometimes opportunities present themselves and they’ve got to be tackled now. That is how Stars owner Lane Smith and General Manager John Crouch have been handling this hair-raising action. Both have stated that all this hasn’t been necessarily according to some plan, but it’s something they couldn’t pass up and they’ll spend the off-season figuring out how things will lineup for their organization next year.
It’s clear that the most important thing to the both of them is winning the WISL championship this season, and it’s not going to come easy against rival Bellingham. Tacoma pulled off the win in the first meeting on a Nate Ford goal to take the 4-3 home victory, and then found themselves tied 7-7 on Jan. 31 with just under six minutes remaining in the match at Bellingham, before two goals put them over the top.
For the first time in a month, the Stars will field just one team over the championship weekend, so they should be at maximum strength.
In the semifinal match against Oly Town, the Stars started slow, looking to catch their groove and find their spots. The scoring opened with probable WISL MVP Derek Johnson knocking in a shot with just over six minutes left in the first quarter. Cam Vickers would join in on the scoring shortly after, before Johnson knocked in his second of the match. Wilson High School Hall of Famer Joey Gertsen added a goal before the end of the quarter and it looked like Tacoma might cruise with a 4-0 lead.
Gjertsen bagged his second goal of the night in the second quarter and the Stars led 5-0. The Artesians' Tom Kemennu slipped one by Tacoma goalkeeper Aaron Anderson to give Oly Town a glimmer of hope as the two clubs went into the half with Tacoma leading 5-1.
Each team got a goal in the third quarter with Mike Rancipher scoring for Oly Town and Tacoma’s Adam West netting one to put Tacoma up 6-2 at the end of the third quarter.
Cam Vickers netted his second goal of the game with 12 minutes remaining to make it 7-2 Tacoma. Oly Town’s Aaron Burns made the most of a power play to get one back for the Artesians, but Tacoma answered with a goal from Byron Conforti and led 8-3 with less than five minutes remaining in the match. Newcomer Gibson Bardley added a ninth goal for Tacoma less than 30 seconds later for a 9-3 advantage.
Garret Lamanto scored a fourth goal for the Artesians, but time was running out on the underdogs. Tacoma’s Kyle Danielson scored on a power play to make it 10-4 with just over two minutes left. Oly Town’s Greg Wolfe put in the final score of the night as the Stars remained alive in the WISL title hunt with the 10-5 win and extended their undefeated league record to 9-0. Olympia ended the season 3-6.
The match would mark the final appearance for West in a Stars jersey this season as he has signed a professional contract with the outdoor Louisville City FC of the USL Pro league. To honor West, a Sounders U-23 alum and former Washington Husky, Batman masks were passed out to several in the crowd courtesy of the Tacoma Stars Satellites supporters group.
West follows another recent Tacoma departure into the pro ranks: defenseman Josh Phillips who played his final match with the Stars on Jan. 25. The Gonzaga star recently signed with the Colorado Springs Switchbacks of the USL Pro league. Both West and Phillips are expected to return to the Stars next season.
Following the Saturday night victory, the Stars set their sights upon their Sunday afternoon match with the Turlock Express at the ShoWare Center in Kent. Since joining the MASL, the Stars had taken some tough losses and were looking for their first victory after four defeats.
Despite having a goalkeeper named Edgar Martinez, the Express was in for a long day against the fired-up Stars and were handed a 12-2 defeat in front of 1,123 happy Tacoma fans. It was the final home game for Tacoma, having taken over the Seattle Impact franchise’s season, which was already 13 games into a 20-game season. Each Tacoma game at the ShoWare Center saw an increase in attendance.
Derek Johnson, fresh off of a two-goal performance the night before, knocked in the first goal 5:42 into the match, and the 1-0 lead would hold for the quarter. Turlock’s Jorge Carmona tied the game up 2:28 into the second quarter and then Tacoma opened the floodgates.
Troy Peterson and Mark Lee each scored before the first half was over and the Stars took a 3-1 lead into the locker room. The ShoWare Center crowd was abuzz with the two-goal lead. It was new territory for this pro team, as well as their fans.
The ShoWare Center euphoria continued in the third quarter as the Stars went supernova and dropped five goals on the Express. Evan Denmark kicked it off just two minutes into the half, followed by another by Lee just under seven minutes in. Now trailing 5-1, Turlock’s coach made the dicey decision to pull Martinez out of the goal and add a sixth attacker. Chris Raymond, Lee and Johnson capitalized on the coach’s decision by each scoring an empty-net goal and the Stars closed out the third quarter with an 8-1 lead.
Tacoma looked like they may coast to the victory in the fourth quarter until Vince McCluskey rifled a shot into the net just over six minutes in. Nearly five minutes later, Danny Minniti got on the board for the Stars and it was a 10-1 advantage. Lee scored the final two goals for the Stars to make it five for the game, as well as one assist. Johnson scored two and added two assists. The kid from Tacoma has now tallied seven goals and two assists in six games for the pro Stars club.
Following a very tough road trip in goal for the Stars, Chris Kintz had an exceptional performance stopping 25 shots, while giving up just two goals in the full 60 minutes.
The pro MASL Stars have two games left on the season. They will travel to St. Louis (6-12) on Feb. 21 and undefeated Missouri (18-0) on Feb. 22.
WISL CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
BELLINGHAM UNITED VS. TACOMA STARS
SATURDAY, FEB. 14 – 7:30 P.M.
TACOMA SOCCER CENTER
$10 ADULTS - $5 KIDS