SeaWolves battle to draw

Published 10:52 pm Saturday, May 7, 2011

EVERETT — Not quite happy, and not quite unhappy, the North Sound SeaWolves settled for satisfied after making their debut Saturday night.

Snohomish County’s newest minor league team, a member of the United Soccer League’s Premier Development League — the highest-level amateur league in the

country — played with impressive effort if not perfect cohesion in drawing with Redmond’s Washington Crossfire 0-0 in front of about 200 fans at Goddard Stadium.

“I can’t say I’m disappointed,” SeaWolves coach Alex Silva said. “It was a first game. Of course we always go for a win but we were missing some players that we’ll have for our next game so we’re still learning to play together.”

The SeaWolves, a mixture of some veterans of the PDL and higher leagues as well as college players, were far from perfect. In a physical game played on a cold night, they did create chances offensively and showed a solid defense in front of vocal keeper Claudio Lazar, who preserved the shutout with an outstanding save off a point-blank shot by Washington’s Kevin Forrest with 21/2 minutes to play. North Sound captain Adam Nowland, a veteran of the English Premier League who controlled play from the center of the field, said the team started off out of synch but pulled together as the game went on.

“Crossfire brought it hard and we’re just babies,” Nowland said. “The thing that has me over the moon is our character. We have so many young guys and we started a little shaky but we played with so much effort and character and I’m really proud of that.”

The back line, led by burly central defender Brandon Gonzalez, stood up to several Washington attacks and Lazar was active. He made an excellent low save in the 16th minute that seemed to spark the SeaWolves. North Sound appeared to take the lead in the 22nd minute when Anderson Prestes found the back of the net off a long free kick but North Sound midfielder Todd Wallenius was called for interfering with Crossfire keeper Stephen Fung and the goal was disallowed.

“We had chances,” Nowland said. “We started to move the ball and connect with each other when guys started playing with more confidence.”

North Sound again nearly took the lead early in the second half when Nowland sent a precise cross to an on-running Wallenius whose shot went just wide. The Crossfire responded with a pair of chances in the 55th minute, including one that Lazar and Gonzalez deflected. Gonzalez later had perhaps the play of the game with about a minute to go when he tackled a ball away on a breakaway.

“That’s a game-saving play,” Nowland said.

“The guys played strong in front of me,” Lazar said. “I helped them and they helped me. We were unlucky a few times but for a first game it was a strong effort.”

Silva said he expects many of his college players to be available in the next game Friday at Tacoma. That group includes several Seattle University and Seattle Pacific players, including former Marysville-Pilchuck star Brady Ballew.

“Our chemistry was good,” Silva said. “We have to work on our possession, controlling passes, finding feet. But I liked the effort and we’ll have a more complete team in the next game.”

“It’s going to create a lot of competition,” Nowland said of the new arrivals. “Some of the guys today showed really well. The competition is going to help our team and once we all get a chance to play together we’re going to be able to do some really good things.”