Submitted by Oly Town Artesians
Sixteen-year-old Eli Boatright fought past a defender more than twice his age to score the game tying goal with just 17 seconds left and earn the Oly Town Artesians their first point of the season and their first point ever against the Snohomish Skyhawks at the Snohomish Soccer Dome.
The was a defensive battle for the first 30 minutes with both goalkeepers, Oly Town’s Ryan Fakkema and Snohomish’s Trevor Davoren, making numerous fantastic saves with only one blemish, a defensive mix up that led to a Skyhawks goal with 2:01 left in the first quarter.
The Artesians played arguably their best quarter all season in the third, scoring twice and killing two power plays. Nate Boatright opened the scoring just after the Skyhawks killed a power play, tying the game 1-1 with 11:41 left in the quarter. Three minutes later, Esau Vazquez gave the Artesians a 2-1 lead off a pass from Eli Boatright. The Skyhawks had back-to-back power plays beginning at the 6:45 mark but Oly Town was able to kill both and take a one goal lead into the fourth quarter.
But the Skyhawks took advantage of another mix up on the backline and tied the game with 12:10 to play and then took the lead 3-2 on a counter attack with 9:13 to play. But the Artesians kept fighting and after failing to capitalize on a power play, Collin Tate poked one past Davoren to tie the game 3-3.
Snohomish answered again and took the 4-3 lead with 1:31 left but couldn’t hold off the Artesians attack and a beauty of a pass from Tate allowed Eli Boatright to find just enough space in front of the Skyhawks defender to score the game tying goal with 17 seconds left. Oly held off one last ditch attack to pick up their first point of the season.
A young Oly Town roster featuring four players making their indoor soccer debut allowed their least amount of goals in a game this season and improved to 0-6-1 with a trip to Tacoma to face fifth place Narrows FC next Saturday night.
The Artesians will return home to close out their regular season with two games beginning on Saturday, January 26th when they face the Oly-Pen Force. First kick at The Pavilion is set for 6:00 PM.
With the second straight draw, Snohomish improved to 2-3-2 and coupled with an Oly-Pen Force loss, took over third place in the Western Indoor Soccer League with three games left to play.
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