PORT ORCHARD, WA—Port Orchard Football Club are the 2023 Champions of the Cascadia Premier League Pacific Division after a 3-0 win over Twin City Union on July 9 at Kitsap Bank Stadium.
The accomplishment was achieved despite a match filled with obstacles. Gaffer Pat Leonard knew it would be a challenge. “I thought there was a lot of adversity to handle throughout the game,” he said. “We had a lot of key guys missing but even in saying that, I thought we were controlled in our performance and I thought it was a performance everyone associated with the club can be proud of.”
A dozen players were unavailable for various reasons but POFC still managed to fill the 22-man match roster thanks to a deep player pool. The scorers who have helped push the club to the top of the table were there and they did what they have been doing: score goals. Namely, POFC got two more from Michael Divano and another from Dominik Pajimola. Both scored in the first half and Divano completed a brace in the second.
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“I thought there were some really strong performances from guys that haven’t often been in the spotlight for us,” Leonard says. “Strong consistent players for us like Gil Navarro and Jeff Pickering were able to stand out in moments and they do a lot to create opportunities for guys like Divano and Dom to score on the day. I also thought Porter Herbig had a very strong debut, but we knew he was capable of that. It was easy to bring him into this team, he’s a very solid addition to a defense getting its second clean sheet in a row. Overall, I’m very pleased with the result.”
The match was watched by a Youth Soccer Day crowd of 742 under bright sunny skies. Twin City Union goalkeeper Jesse Gonzalez made 12 saves, some dazzling. There were numerous yellow cards on both sides, some for time wasting (kicking the ball out of bounds) and even Leonard drew a yellow as he tried to converse during problematic calls.
Still, POFC persisted for their supporters. The work was put in to make the result happen. Leonard credits the growing understanding of his players. “The guys are aware of the opportunity to bring success to this amazing fan base and now we are starting to see some of those moments come to light.”
Watch a full match replay from DaveSPN below. This is a fan broadcast.
The division title is secured. Now POFC await the final standings over in the Cascade Division. Currently Nido Aguila Club America Seattle 2 (second team) lead the Cascade at 4-1-1. Second place is up for grabs with Bellevue Athletic 2 (second team) and Washington Premier (second team) Legends both at 3-2-1. Mount Rainier FC are 2-2-1 with a match in hand. Port Orchard will play the second place finisher in the CPL2 promotion playoff semifinal on Friday July 28 in Puyallup.
Port Orchard has two regular season away matches to finish out the schedule. They next travel to Port Townsend to play Northern Peninsula FC on Sunday July 16 at 2 PM. Leonard knows the task at hand. “Now we can focus on a tough test in going to Port Townsend this week. They had a strong result against Grays Harbor and will be wanting to keep that momentum going.”