SEATTLE, Wash. — On the back of two goal of the year contenders from Jack Maguire and Richard Conces, West Seattle Junction FC earned a statement win last night against Snohomish United, moving to 2-6-4 on the year with just two games remaining in the 2025 season.
“Snohomish is very direct in their style of play, but our guys did a great job figuring it out,” shared head coach Erik Oman. “We grew into the game well. Not having Jake was a big loss, but Jack stepped up and helped us win the first and second balls and break up Snohomish’s attack all evening.”
The visitors pressed high on West Seattle in the opening minutes of Sunday’s contest, with Niclas Isensee and Junction’s backline holding strong against Snohomish’s offensive efforts. Forced to play on the counterattack, the hosts looked to go forward when they could through Stephen Saladin, Jacen Stein, and Alex Mejia, but were unsuccessful throughout much of the first half.
Junction’s first sight on goal came in the 15th minute, with Conces’ freekick nearly finding the top corner after Saladin was brought down just outside the box by Snohomish’s Egor Akulov.
Having successfully weathered the storm that the visitors posed in the first half, West Seattle looked keen to turn the tide of the game in the second half, with the hosts breaking the deadlock against the run of play in the 49th minute through Conces. The midfielder found himself in acres of space, scoring past Jadon Bowton from a magnificent distance to put the hosts up by one.
The hosts remained on the front foot following the opener, with Kobayashi nearly doubling the lead after dragging his shot just wide of the goal in the 53rd minute. The Blues did go on to double their lead, with an even more spectacular effort than the first thanks to Maguire. Stein skillfully danced his way past a pair of Snohomish defenders looking for Mejia, whose misplaced header landed at the feet of Maguire, who blasted his first-time effort from a remarkable distance to beat Bowton in net for the visitors.
The visitors pulled one back in the 67th minute through Eric Frintu, but were unable to find any sort of answer for Maguire’s wondergoal, which proved to be the game-winner after a tightly-contested and physical second half of play, which saw Snohomish’s Julian Avila sent off in the 90th minute.
With just one more game in front of the Thistle Street Faithful, West Seattle is looking to extend their winning streak to three on Tuesday night, as they close out their home schedule with their first matchup against new USL League Two side Bigfoot FC. Kickoff is at 7:00 pm at Nino Cantu Southwest Athletic Complex, with tickets available for purchase online starting at just $15.
