PORT ORCHARD, WA—Port Orchard Football Club and the other member teams of the Cascadia Premier League Rainier Division have had their seasons altered and shortened after Washington Premier FC (WPFC) were unable to complete their season of matches. League bylaws state when this happens that all match results from the club who can’t continue are deleted for the season.
Washington Premier had played 5 of their 8 season matches when they listed injuries as the reason for not being able to play their final 3 contests. One of those matches was scheduled for Wednesday night July 17 where WPFC would have hosted Port Orchard. The other two matches were against Tacoma Stars Reserves and Sporting International. All three matches will not be played.
Port Orchard Files Protest With CPL, Wins Decision
The Cascadia Premier League originally floated the idea of some kind of new combined Washington Premier roster finishing out the season. The youth giant has a team in the CPL2 called WPFC Legends with coaches who play alongside former college players. Port Orchard FC turned to the league bylaws and sent a protest against such an effort. There would have been scarce time to provide oversight on such a roster of players, and the matches all had playoff implications. In the end the CPL agreed to follow their bylaws and the entire WPFC season was erased.
Playoff Implications
The deletion of all WPFC results changed the playoff landscape. The Rainier Division is now down to a single match. Tacoma Stars Reserves will play at Sporting International at 8 PM on Thursday July 18 in Seattle. Port Orchard’s playoff fate awaits the outcome. A Sporting win or tie puts them through. A Tacoma win would put Port Orchard into the playoffs with a second place finish.
Should POFC qualify for the post season, they would play Crossfire Premier on Friday night July 26 in the CPL1 Semifinals in Puyallup. Time to be announced. The CPL1 Championship match is scheduled for Sunday July 28.
Home Finale Saturday v. FC Olympia
Whatever the outcome of POFC’s playoff hopes, the club does have a final home match coming on Saturday July 20 in a 6 PM kick off against FC Olympia at Kitsap Bank Stadium. It will be the first time the two sides have ever met. The match features free admission for all fans and will be played with the main stand in the shade of the high school. Cousins Kitchen will be selling supper.
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