OLYMPIA, Wash. — In what proved to be a perfect ending to their final run of games to end the 2025 USL League Two season, West Seattle Junction FC were victorious against FC Olympia thanks to a late game-winner from Alexander Hristov, who scored his second goal of the year in Friday’s win. The Blues ended the campaign with a 4-6-4 record to finish in 6th place in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference.
Junction, eager to tally their fourth win in a row to close out the regular season, nearly found the back of the net in the opening minutes of play, but forward Jacen Stein was unable to get his shot off before being closed down after getting on the end of a through ball from Damoni Mckenna. The hosts made sure to capitalize on the visitor’s missed opportunity, as the Artesians caught the Blues out of position and broke the deadlock through Jake Simson in the 6th minute, which provided an early setback for head coach Erik Oman and his squad.
After a cagey period of play, where both squads looked dangerous going forward, West Seattle looked to have leveled the score in the 16th minute through Mckenna, but the defender had drifted into an offside position. Mckenna had a second opportunity about 10 minutes later after being picked out by a long ball from Jack Maguire, but saw his shot pushed away by Jack Landreth in goal for Olympia.
Junction’s continuous pressure did eventually pay off, as the visitors were able to find an equalizer thanks to Stein in the 28th minute. Joschi Schelb, who has been Junction’s creative spark in midfield all season, picked up the ball in Olympia’s half and found Stein in space, who placed his shot into the bottom corner past Landreth for his fourth goal of the year.
The Blues pushed on, looking to extend their lead as the half wore on, but were forced to settle for an even scoreline heading into the halftime interval, with goalkeeper Niclas Isensee and the rest of the Junction backline doing well when called upon to keep the Olympia attack at bay.
It was tightly contested throughout much of the second half, with Maguire, Jake Larson, and Connor O’Keefe all having a massive part to play in Olympia’s inability to find a second and decisive goal. With time winding down, a perfectly-placed long ball from Maguire found forward Leon Tezuka in space beyond the Artesian’s backline. Tezuka battled his way past a defender and coolly picked out his fellow forward Hristov, who tapped his shot into an open net in the 87th minute to secure the hard-fought win for the boys in Junction Blue.
West Seattle needed a little bit of magic throughout their final spell of games, and after having faced adversity throughout much of the season, they did enough to get it done and end the season with plenty of momentum and promise heading into 2026.
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