By Quint Turner

A tough Kitsap Pumas team handed the Edmonds-based North Sound SeaWolves their third straight loss Sunday in Premiere Development League soccer play at Edmonds-Woodway Stadium Sunday afternoon. This time, it was a 3-0 loss against the Kitsap Pumas.

Once again, there was a red card shown to a Seawolf. Gene Tibbits, whose parents flew in from Alaska to see him play, got the red in the 34th minute when he gave a large shove to Danny Medina; it was a straight red. On the Puma side, Greg Miley scored two of the goals along with Ben Truax, who scored the first of three. The goals all came within 11 minutes of each other, with Truax scoring in the 47th, Miley’s first goal in the 49th, and his second goal in the 58th. Zac Lubin recorded the shutout for the Pumas, and Claudio Lazar was the keeper for the SeaWolves.

The first 20 minutes featured the Pumas dominating the possession. They were able to string passes endlessly to try to tire out the SeaWolves’ defense. The first chance came when Miley got open at the top of the box and took a shot that deflected off a SeaWolf defender wide in the 3rd minute. The corner kick after from Kyle Johnson was cleared by the defense. The next minute, Elliot Fauske found himself wide open with the ball inside the box but he waited too long to take a shot and the defense was able to steal the ball away and clear it. In the 17th minute, Daniel MacLeod took a shot off a Truax cross that was blocked by the defense into Lazar’s arms.

The SeaWolves finally started their own attack in the 20th minute. Brady Ballew settled a bouncing ball at the top of the box and struck a shot high over the crossbar for the first chance of the game for the SeaWolves. Four minutes later, Renato Bandeira got the ball back after his corner kick deflected to him near the corner of the box, and he got a shot off that went just wide. The Pumas came back in the 28th minute when they earned a free kick that Matt Friesen hit right to Lazar.

In the 34th minute, after a Puma through ball went to Lazar, Tibbets and Medina had a bit of a shoving contest behind the play. In the confusion, Tibbets apparently spit on Medina in frustration of a no-call, and Medina retaliated. Tibbets was sent off with a red card and Medina got away with only a yellow. So the SeaWolves had to play the majority of the match down a player. Miley got an open shot from the top of the box in the 37th minute, but he shot the ball wide of the goal. Then, in the 41st minute, there was another yellow card handed out. This time, Benjamin Elliot of the SeaWolves ran through Miley on a tackle after Miley had passed the ball away. The Pumas looked to have gone up the next minute when Miley was all alone in the box with the ball after a through ball, and he scored; however, he was offsides and the game remained tied 0-0 at the end of the half.

The SeaWolves looked good to start the second when Bandeira struck a pass from Ballew wide. However, the Pumas quickly recovered as MacLeod ran down the sidelines and hit a low cross that was tapped in by Truax to make it a 1-0 lead in the 47th minute. Then, two minutes later, Justin Robbins threw the ball into the box right to Miley, who turned around and struck a low shot past Lazar to make it 2-0.

The SeaWolves looked shellshocked after that, and never got any momentum going to try to get back into the game. Kitsap scored its third goal of the game when Miley received a cross from Truax while wide open in the box. He also just missed another cross that was punched out by Lazar in the 58th minute. The SeaWolves had their best chance of the half in the 60th minute when they earned a free kick near the top corner of the box, and Marshall Kosaka sent the ball in the box. The ball bounced off a couple of heads and to the keeper.

The Pumas slowed down the pace for the last 30minutes, as they finished the game the way they started: by possessing the ball. In the 66th minute, Truax almost scored again when MacLeod hit a free kick from 20 yards out that went straight to Truax, but he hit it straight to Lazar. The SeaWolves had another good chance when Kosaka sent a through ball to Ballew, who hit it just wide, but the play was called offsides in the 74th minute. The SeaWolves turned the ball over in the 75th minute to Johnson, who was 30 yards away from the goal, and he sent it just wide past Lazar.

The last scoring chance for either side came in the 87th minute, when Steve Mohn hit a free kick 30 yards out that ricocheted off two players before getting punched away by Lazar. The final score was a 3-0 win for the Kitsap Pumas.

With the win, the Pumas improve to 4-2 on the season, and their next game is on June 9 at home vs. the 4-0 Portland Timbers at 7 p.m. The SeaWolves fall to 1-3, and their next game is Wednesday at home against the Vancouver Whitecaps at 7:30 p.m.

My Edmonds News sports correspondent Quint Turner is a student at Meadowdale High School.