ISSAQUAH, WA—Eastside FC rallied to score three straight goals in the second half and top Port Orchard Football Club 5-3 on Thursday July 11 at Central Park in the Issaquah Highlands. Michael Divano netted a hat trick scoring all three POFC goals.
The result moved Eastside FC into the second playoff spot in the Cascadia Premier League Rainier Division. Their regular season is now over and EFC stand with 12 points on 4 wins and 4 losses and a overall goal differential of -6.
Port Orchard FC are now 3 wins and 4 losses with 9 points and a goal differential of +3. POFC have one match remaining in league play on Wednesday July 17 at Washington Premier.
Scoreboard Watching
Port Orchard and Eastside will both be doing some scoreboard watching to see what happens with Sporting International. Sporting have 2 matches left to play and could leapfrog both clubs into second place.
Port Orchard faces a must-win match at Washington Premier to keep their playoff hopes alive. A scenario where POFC could make the playoffs would be to win over Washington Premier and get to 12 points while Sporting International loses 1 of their 2 remaining matches (or ties both). Then the league would go to tiebreaker rules to decide the spot.
Divano On Fire
Michael Divano continued his amazing goal production, putting POFC up 1-0 in the first half and then later getting them even with EFC, 2-2. Early in the second half Divano gave POFC a 3-2 lead. Eastside then went on to score the final 3 goals of the match.
Divano now leads the team in goals for the season with 10. He has scored 5 goals in the last two CPL1 matches.
Watch the match below.
Gaffer Weighs In
POFC Head Coach Patrick Leonard says of the match: “I think overall the result is one where we have let ourselves down in moments that cost us. In the end, if we concede that many, we aren’t playing at our best and there are things that need to be addressed.”
“I think we have been facing that in moments throughout the season, but ultimately we just need to keep working on improving the totality of our game as a squad. We have three games left to work on that, with a postseason still very realistic for us, we need to have our sights set on that and work towards giving this club another postseason.”
“The guys were and will be disappointed by the result, but realistically we need to move on from that quickly and prepare for a game this weekend against a strong side and then an away day in the league that is simply a must win for us.”