The Olympia boys soccer team had an opportunity to put away one of the top teams in the South Puget Sound League in Emerald Ridge Thursday night, but the Jaguars scored a penalty kick in the final four minutes to result in a 1-1 draw.
Olympia’s Casey Smith netted a goal in the 15th minute off a pass from Stefan Lucenko, and no one scored again for over 60 minutes. But in a call that Olympia head coach Ty Johnson called “very soft and questionable,” a push-in-the-back call on the Bears set up a penalty kick for Emerald Ridge, which was successful.
“It’s a game of inches. We missed a great opportunity to go up 2-0 with 10 minutes left and had to settle with the tie,” Johnson said. “It was a questionable push in the back in a very intense match that saw lesser calls not get whistled.”
Olympia (9-1-4, 5-1-2 SPSL) sits in third place in the SPSL behind Sumner and Emerald Ridge entering a home match with Bonney Lake (3-7-2, 2-4-2 SPSL) Tuesday, April 28.
