Bellingham, WA - The number 4 ranked Trojans found themselves in hostile territory on Saturday afternoon, in a north region showdown against #5 ranked Whatcom. The Orcas entered the contest at 6-0 and coming off a recent 2-0 victory over Shoreline. That confidence translated into an early attack, putting EvCC on their heels. Freshman goalkeeper made two big saves to start the match which included a penalty kick save in the 10th minute of action. This immediately shifted momentum of the match. Everett became the agressors and started developing chances. In the 15th minute, sophomore captain Noah Harrison Russel received a pass from fellow sophomore Cristiano Whitaker at the top of the box. Noah chipped the ball in front of the net that was deflected by an Orca defender, and careened past the keeper for the matches first goal. Moments later Whitaker nearly scored again, but the WCC keeper was able to make the save.
Both teams settled in defensively from the 20th minute on, and neither could generate much of an attack for the remainder of the half. Still the home team outshot Everett 5-3. Intensity and physical play picked up in the 2nd half as time went on and EvCC maintained the one goal lead. In the 71st minute, a WCC player picked up a yellow card which was followed by another yellow when Anthony Henry beat beat a Whatcom defender and was held to keep from a goal scoring opportunity. Not long after that a different Whatcom player picked up his second yellow card of the match, sending him off with 15 minutes to play.
By the end of the match seven cards were issued, and 21 fouls called. With the man advantage, EvCC was able to weather any attempts by Whatcom to draw the match even, and the Trojans picked up their 5th win of the season.
Everett's schedule will not get any easier as they will again hit the road, this time to #1 ranked Peninsula College. They meet the Pirates in Port Angeles on Wednesday, September 18th for a 7:15pm kick off.