By Ed Shepherd
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

Not to take anything away from Tyee -- the Totems played strong, capable, soccer, every bit deserving of the win.

Highline played solid, too. However, the Pirates missed their opportunities, especially early on, that could have made this a much closer finish than the Totems' 3-0 win at Highline Memorial Friday.

The Totems stay in first place among the 2A Seamount League teams, moving to 3-0-0 while the Pirates drop to 1-2-0.

"We did not have a strong start, they controlled the ball, had some shots on us," said Seyti Sidibay, the Totems head coach. "But then we settled down on defense and worked hard with success after that."
That's just it, too, the Totems did work hard, passed the ball great, more and more, getting into a rhythm as the game wore on, and they won by a 3-0 score. But, the Pirates never stopped trying and never stopped controlling the ball at least half as much as the Totems all game long.

The Pirates dominated the opening 10 minutes of play, four tries at goals. Just one problem with all those tries: No makes.

Just one minute into the game, the Pirates' senior captain and forward Alex Muresan got a shot off from the top of the 18-yard box. The ball, however, sailed over the Totem keepers' head and three-quarters high on through the field goal uprights behind the goal, so way too high of a shot.

If Muresan was leaning over the ball on that shot, taking a little more time to focus on the ball before striking it, he could have put the Pirates up, 1-0, maybe. Truth be told, though, the Totems' keeper, Alan Mora-Torres, a junior, without a doubt was very solid in goal all game long and any shot that would have gone in would had to have been a nicely put shot at the net.

So, the Pirates, two minutes later into the contest, got the ball again, off an intercepted pass by senior center midfielder Diego Atilano. He dribbled the ball a touch or two before feeding a beautiful through-ball to sophomore forward Vincente Aquino. Timing his run perfectly to Atilano's pass, Aquino ran past the defense and was all alone with the ball going toward the 18-yard box. Smartly, though, the Totems' keeper, Mora-Torres, instinctively, came out of goal for the one-on-one. And Mora-Torres cut off the angle as good as one could. And the Pirates' Aquino did get a shot off, but the ball curled around Totems' keeper and missed going inside the near post by about three feet.

"Our goalkeeper, Alan, had a great game," said Sidibay.

No argument there about Sidibay's statement, as the whole game Mora-Torres, in goal for the Totems, made great plays. And the player of the game - -if there would have been one named -- was him. But Mora-Torres knew this game's outcome could have been a lot closer, even, perhaps, a one or two goal lead for the Pirates before the Totems would score 13 minutes into the match.

Busy back there?

"A little bit," said Mora-Torres, laughing at the question, because he knew he was really busy back there against the Pirates' offense, which was shooting and coming at him relentlessly to begin the game. And, really, all through the game, the Pirates were keeping him alert and moving in goal.

"Strong team, they made me work for it," said Mora-Torres of the Pirates.

So, then, five minutes into the game, the Pirates again threatened with a shot by another player way over the goal. And then for the Pirates, one more time with a chance to score a goal, with nine minutes off the 40-minute, first-half, clock. Muresan, a talented dribbler, was inside the 12-yard penalty box area just needing to strike the ball true with the lacing of his right shoe. Or, another option, he could kick the ball with the inside of his foot squarely. However, the shot Muresan took was mishit off his foot and went harmlessly out of the way.

That was it for the Pirates' early tries, three dangerous threats gone amiss which could have made their coach, Eduardo Millan, figuratively, want to pull his hair out, one would think. But, Millan stayed calm looking and just kept telling his players to keep playing because they kept fighting hard, kept playing good possession soccer, the whole game. The Totems would make their first scoring chance count less than five minutes after the Pirates' first three quality scoring tries were not capitalized on.

With 13 minutes off the scoreboard clock in the first half, Totems' senior midfielder Mohamed Dukuly put a ball into the air to the very dangerous area of the middle of the 6-yard-box. And the Pirates' fullback should have headed the ball to the side to clear it from harm's way. But, instead, that player headed it straight back into the middle of the field, where a Totems' player, senior Nebiu Kinfu, one-timed a hard shot past the diving Pirates' keeper, sophomore Jonathan Tadeo, to give the Totems the lead, 1-0.

The game continued back-and-forth the rest of the half, with both the Pirates and Totems getting, pretty much, equal runs of play albeit the Pirates had a few more scoring opportunities too in that time. For the first half, the Pirates' keeper, Tadeo, made five saves while the Totems' keeper, Mora-Torres, made four saves. And, for shots on goal, further justifying the Pirates were in this game, and then some, they shot more shots on goal than the Totems, 6-4, in the first half.

The last 25 minutes of the first half, in fact, after the Totems had just nearly scored a second goal, right after their first, on a corner kick skidding across the goal mouth untouched, it was the Pirates having five tries on goal to three for the Totems.

Acquino was the first of the tries for the Pirates, another shot from inside the 18-yard-box going wide. And then sophomore Edgar Gonzalez, off a pass from junior Martin Temprano into open space, by the Totems' last line of defense, was thwarted by Mora-Torres coming out of goal and disrupting the shot to go wide. Next, freshman Alex Cortes, fielding another nice, through ball into open space beyond the Totems' last line of defense was shot wide.

Then, for the Pirates' final try at a score with two minutes left in the first half KhanSian Kip took a shot from the 18-yard-box on the right side toward the far post that Totems' keeper Mora-Torres sprung on.
For the Totems' tries in the first half, in amongst the Pirates' tries, sophomore forward Diego Ramos-Machado recorded two of them with nice dribbling moves, getting inside the box before the Pirates' defense, led by senior sweeper and captain Gurjit Dhesi and freshman Jack Madsen, closed in. Then, the Totems' Oscar Michel fired a shot from 30 feet straightaway that flew a few feet over the cross bar.

So, to the second half and the Pirates', again, only, a couple minutes in, got a nice pass and cross by senior Pedro Casto and Temprano teaming. But, the ball was nicely cleared with, first, a header, by a Totems defender, sophomore Alexis Cervantes, and then a full volley of the ball out of danger by junior Ulyses Morales sending the ball up the field.

"We are an offensively gifted team, we have 12 goals in three games," said Sidibay, adding, "But, we are defensively gifted, too."

No question about that, because Mora-Torres is highly gifted in the goal, but, true to what Sidibay said, the Totems' defense, led by Morales and Cervantes, was in around the shots of the Pirates a lot of the time this game. So that kind of pressure can alter shots from shooters, causing mishit balls or off-line shots.
The Totems, in between the Pirates' getting another shot, or, two, on goal that became more missed opportunities, scored with 31 minutes left in the second half. Ramos-Machado, doing more good work, dribbling, assisted senior captain Adama Kante scoring inside the 18-yard box.

"Diego did all the work. He dribbled and then he passed to me, and, I tapped it in," said Kante of the goal that made it, 2-0, Totems.

Then, for the third goal for the Totems, it was Kante getting a through ball from senior midfielder Mohammed Dukuly.

"I did movement, and Mohammed gave me a through ball and I was 1 on 1 with the goalie," said Kante. "He didn't have angle and I got the ball around him and the goal."

That made it, 3-0 -- the final score.

Afterward, there wasn't too much to say for the Pirates. It was evident what needs to be done better:

Execution. Not finishing.

Right?

"Yeah, finish," said Cortes, a freshman. "The game was pretty tense."

What did Cortes' coach, Millan, tell his team after the game?

"He didn't really say much," said Cortes. "He just told us to keep our heads up."

The Totems are a good team, unquestionably, led by a very strong intuitive, goalie, but the Pirates can be a good team, too, winning games, and getting to the playoffs this season. The Pirate players need to believe in their coach's formations and strategy, of having midfielders and forwards doing things like playing wide, and, following his guided instruction in practices.

And, the Pirates need to do what Millan said they need to do, as Cortes noted, they need to stay positive. They need to focus in on making scoring chances become reality but not get down and cause a loss of focus if a chance is missed, Keep playing, make adjustments to shooting technique, etc. and, get the next one.

Millan, like Sidibay, has his team, playing a skillful, pleasing-to-watch brand of soccer, a high level, really, for high school kids. But, its going to take work, a whole lot of it, to translate that talented effort into success this season. That happens, and it still wouldn't be too surprising to see the Totems playing the Pirates in the 2A state playoffs this season, which means both would be one of the top teams in the state.
For the first and second halves combined the Pirates got four more shots on goal than the Totems, 12-8. And, also, for goalie work, the Pirates' Tadeo made seven saves for the game while the Totems' Mora-Torres made 10.