Submitted by Oly Town Artesians
For the second time this season, the Oly Town Artesians and Bellingham United went into second half stoppage time tied 1-1, and for the second time this season, Bellingham scored the game winner in extra time to take a 2-1 victory on Sunday afternoon at Black Hills High School.
Just like in their first meeting in Bellingham, the two teams battled to a scoreless score line in the first half with both Oly Town goalkeeper JJ Olson and Bellingham keeper Hector Gutierrez making a handful of saves over the first 45 minutes.
Shelton High School senior Many Nicasio entered the game at halftime and made an immediate impact taking a pass from Jerome Natt and lifting a shot with his knee over Gutierrez to give the Artesians a 1-0 lead in the 47th minute.
But Bellingham answered when Richard Henderson pounced on a rebound and fired it into the top corner making it 1-1 in the 69th minute. Bellingham then took control of the game and produced many chances for the final 20 minutes but the game entered stoppage time still tied 1-1. Finally, after chipping away at the Oly Town defense, Eleazar Galvan – the one-time EPLWA MVP for Wenatchee United – found some space and hooked a shot across his body and past Olson for the game winner in the 92nd minute. The final whistle sounded moments later to give the Hammers a 2-1 win, distancing themselves from the Seattle Stars for first place in the Cascade Conference.
The Artesians will try to regroup when they travel to Bremerton next Saturday to face the Oly-Pen Force at Gordon Field. First kick is set for 3:00 PM
Oly Town FC will return to Black Hills High School for a Washington State Super Cup semifinal match for their next home game. The date and time will be set this week. The next home Evergreen Premier League game is on Saturday, July 6th when the Tri-Cities Alliance hit the capital city. It’s a 6:00 PM first kick and tickets are available now at www.olytownfc.com/tickets.
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