by Owen Cameros
Wednesday night, Junction FC headed South on I5, to play fellow USL League Two newcomer the Tacoma Stars.
Attempting to put Saturday’s loss to Ballard FC behind them, West Seattle started well. Just a few minutes into the match, Leon Tezuka nearly found the back of the net after a good interchange between Jason Stein, James Lear, and himself. However, the striker’s shot missed the near post.
From there Tacoma grew into the match and in the 11th minute, Connor Tollan, jumped on the rebound of a Jeremy Opong shot, and tapped it into the back of the net opening his account for the season.
Tacoma continued to attack for the rest of the first half, nearly doubling their lead on numerous occasions, but just before half time, Mani Diop sprung James Lear down the right flank. Lear did well to pick his head up and find the run of Jason Stein, who’s header found the top left corner equalizing the match at one.
Four minutes into the second half, and it looked as though Junction had turned the game on its head. Diop’s first attempted cross from the right flank was met by the head of a Tacoma center back. Buckley was able to recycle the ball back to Diop, who’s second cross found Tezuka, and his redirection found the back of the net giving West Seattle the 2-1 lead.
However, Junction’s lead evaporated as quickly as it appeared. In the 52nd minute Keegan Yorke got on the end of a Stars free kick and with a spinning flick header placed the ball into the side netting past Jadon Bowton.
Charlie Kosakoff, Tacoma’s joint leading goalscorer, entered the match in the 51st minute. The striker was quick to make his presence known, as just six minutes later, Kosakoff latched onto a bouncing ball at the top of the box, volleying it past his University of Washington teammate Jadon Bowton.
Now leading 3-2, the Stars did not take their foot off the gas, but were stymied from finding a sealing fourth goal due to great defensive work by Jake Larson and co.
Junction in turn had their chances to equalize, nearly finding the back of the net on a curled effort by Julian Rangal, which forced a diving stop out of Tacoma keeper Brandon Limes.
Finally, in the 82nd minute, Kosakoff produced a moment of brilliance to finish off the match. Willie Spur pounced on a giveaway in the midfield and did well to weave through two defenders. He then laid the ball to Kosakoff who took two touches to get his feet right before curling a ball off the right post and into the back of the net.
Tacoma found a fifth goal in the dying embers of the match and took home all three points. For Junction FC, it’s consecutive defeats against the top two teams in the league.
Junction now moves to the Oregon part of their four game road trip, with games against Capital FC Atletico and Lane United on June 9th and 11th respectively.
