Kitsap Pumas tops Seawolves 1-0

Published 10:15 pm Sunday, May 29, 2011

EVERETT — It was evident from the start that one team had played together for a long time and one, well, hadn’t.

Indeed, the Kitsap Pumas were made up of a core group of players who had played together for three years and many had played professionally. The North Sound SeaWolves, on the other hand, are a first-year team whose lineup Sunday had practiced together all of two times.

Because of that disparity, SeaWolves coach Alex Silva was happy enough after watching his team compete hard against the league-leading Pumas before falling 1-0 in front of an energetic crowd of about 300 at Goddard Stadium.

The loss was the second in a row for North Sound (0-2-2), which is still searching for its first ever win, while Kitsap, which has outscored its opponents 15-2 this season, improved to 5-0-1. The Pumas were coming off a 6-1 demolition of the Tacoma Tide.

“I’m very proud of the team,” Silva said. “I love the way we played on the field, the hustle, how hard we worked, how smart we played. This is a group that we’re moving forward with and I think we’ll see us getting better and better.”

Sunday’s lineup was a new look for the SeaWolves as Silva is focusing on putting a group of primarily collegiate players on the field. Only three starters against Kitsap saw significant action in the season-opener on May 7. Instead, it was players fresh off their collegiate spring seasons who filled the field against a more veteran group.

“We’re facing guys who are like 28 years old and center backs who are like 6-foot-4 and 200 pounds,” said SeaWolves forward Brady Ballew, a Marysville native who just completed his freshman season at Seattle University. “This is a brand-new team so you expect that there will be games when we’re learning to play together. But there’s chemistry here. The trick will be putting it together on the field.”

There were signs of progress as the game went on, with North Sound putting more and more pressure on the Kitsap defense. Unfortunately, one mistake midway through the first half was all it took for the Pumas to win.

In the 28th minute, Kitsap’s Matt Friesen fired a free kick from about 20 yards out into the SeaWolves wall. But North Sound was unable to clear the ball and it went back to Friesen, who scooted a shot through the defense and past a diving Claudio Lazar for the game’s only goal and Friesen’s fifth of the season.

“If not for that free kick, for that one mistake, we would have played this team evenly,” Silva said. “I thought we did great, but it was just that one mistake that cost us.”

The goal sparked the SeaWolves’ best flurry of the game, as less than a minute later forward Abdu Aman ran onto a ball in front of the goal and got a shot off that missed. A minute later, a SeaWolves header was cleared off the goal line and a follow-up by Marshall Kosaka was saved.

The SeaWolves didn’t have many more clear chances, the best coming late in the second half when Christopher Morris volleyed a cross but it went wide.

North Sound stayed in it thanks to some solid man marking in the back led by tall center defender Ray Lind and an active, outstanding and often frenetic effort by Lazar, who made several tough saves and regularly journeyed well outside his box to clear balls with his feet and head.

“It was obvious as the game went on that we were starting to come together,” Lind said. “It just takes quality time playing together. It’s all about the personnel. … But our main goal was not to be embarrassed at home and we did that.”

North Sound next plays Saturday at the Abbotsford Mariners before returning home June 11 to meet Victoria.

“I’m glad to have this group together,” Silva said. “We’re counting on these players, who want to step up and play at the next level. It’s not going to be easy but I’m looking forward to working with these guys.”

Nowland leaves team

As part of Silva’s move toward a younger lineup, he said that former English Premier League player and team captain Adam Nowland is no longer with the team. Nowland, a central midfielder who had played a team-high 270 minutes in the first three games, made a name for himself at Blackpool in England and was also an assistant coach for Silva with the SeaWolves. But Silva said Nowland wasn’t available to be at practice regularly and he didn’t feel he could continue to carry a player who wasn’t able to give more time to the team.

“It just wasn’t working out for us,” Silva said.

Starting center back Brandon Gonzalez was also unavailable Sunday due to injury, nor was forward/midfielder Todd Wallenius, an experienced goal scorer who has missed the last two games for family reasons.

“It’s going to be hard for them to get back into the lineup, they’re really going to have to work,” Silva said. “We have the group we like going forward with and I can only take so many players with us.”