The Tacoma Tide entered Friday night’s match-up with the Ogden Outlaws tied for first place in the Northwest Division (Western Conference) of the PDL. The boys from the Puget Sound continued their stranglehold on that position with a big 1-0 win of the home team Ogden Outlaws.
The Tacoma Tide’s longest road trip of the regular season began with 3 points. The trip down to
Utah to take on the Ogden Outlaws and the BYU Cougars started off with the first win away from Curtis High School Stadium this year. Chase Tangney continued his strong run with his 3rd goal in two matches. The goal came in the 63rd minute after dominating possession from the second half kickoff. The Tide were able to hold on a late surge to notch a win and stay atop the Northwest Division.
The first half at Ogden High School Stadium was an exchange of light jabs and half chances. Machael David had a good opportunity with his head off a corner kick in the 22nd minute and each team had good drives on goal blocked before they could test the opposing keeper. In the 34th minute, a through ball found Daniel Scott out on an island. His challenge seemed to collect the ball but also made contact with the attacker and a foul was given along with a yellow card. To begin the 2nd half, the decision was made to pull Scott to not risk him with a yellow card and to rest him for the BYU match.
The 2nd half saw a Tide team with a purpose. The Tacoma side kept pressure on Ogden so much so that the Outlaws didn’t have possession in their attacking half until the 65th minute, a full ten minutes into the half. The extended pressure almost resulted in a goal in the 62nd minute when Spencer Schomaker’s blast was blocked straight into the air. Rory Agu, looking for his 7th goal of the year, nudged a defender off the ball and had an open net to score. The shot hit off the upright and was cleared out. The Tide opportunity was lost, but quickly made up for. Less than a minute later, Schomaker held up the ball about 40 yards out, played a square ball to Machael David, who dummied the ball through his legs over to Chase Tangney. Tangney picked up the ball with pace, took a touch and laced one into the bottom right corner past the outstretched keeper’s hand.
The Tide were on their heels for the final ten minutes of the match. The task was made a bit easier when Tucker Maxwell, who was vibrant at his left back role, touched it past an Outlaw wing and was hacked down. The cleats up challenge caught Maxwell’s ankle. Flynn Stewart-Franzen, the tackler, was given a straight red card in the 88th minute. Even a man down, Ogden pushed on and a late free kick yielded two goal keepers in the Tide box. The
Ogden goal tender came up to attempt a finish, but the rush was evaded and the Tide got an essential 3-pointer.
After flying in on game day, the match proved to be tough and physical but the boys were able to pull out a big win and secure a few points headed into Saturday night’s match up with the BYU Cougars. The Tide now stand alone in first place after Yakima’s loss to BYU. Stay tuned for full game recaps of both the Ogden and BYU games.
