Packed House Helps Steelheads Dominate Oly-Pen Force 11-3 in Season Home Opener

This past Saturday, the Steelheads hosted a packed house in front of 200+ fans, with the Steelheads Battalion Supporters in full force banging drums loud for their Home Opener vs. Oly-Pen Force, dominating 11-3 at The Snohomish Sports Dome.

“It was a fun game. They have some quality players, but this year we felt much more in control of the game compared to last year when we won [at home],” said Forward Jacen Stein.

Coming into the match, the Steelheads sat at 1-1 on the season, with those two matches both being on the road at Portland and OlyTown.

In the first quarter, the Steelheads shut out Oly-Pen, while putting away two goals. During an offensive power play, Daniel Amador would be the first Fish on the board, assisted by veteran Bryan Fakkema. Not even a minute later newcomer Ryota Uchikoshi would get his first goal on the night, assisted by Garret Robinson.

The second quarter saw much of the same dominance with five more goals for the Fish. Glenn Paden, with help from Uchikoshi and Tyler Hopp, scored the third goal of the match. Not even 30 seconds later, Robinson would assist another newcomer Brayden Corwin for his first Fish goal, and the Steelheads’ fourth goal.

Paden would collect his third goal for his first hat trick of the season, the fifth goal of the match, from newcomer Elliot Misic. A sixth goal would come from veteran Devin Shull during an offensive power play.

During the middle of the second, a questionable handball call led to Oly-Pen scoring their first goal of the night on a penalty kick that would slip by veteran Goalkeeper Trevor Davoren.

The second quarter would end with Ryota Uchikoshi winning a defensive tackle, taking on the Oly-Pen Goalkeeper 1v1 to score the 7th goal of the match; his second of the game.

The third quarter would start off to another quick goal from Uchikoshi. Taking only eight seconds to score his 3rd goal, for a hat-trick, and the 8th total goal for the Steelheads.

Despite being down 8-1, The Force would keep up their effort, ultimately scoring two goals in the third quarter. However, they would receive a straight blue/yellow for a very dangerous tackle into the boards on Andrew Escalante, then subsequently 2 additional yellow cards for dissent after the play. This put the Steelheads in another offensive power play where, yet again, Devin Shull was able to find Glenn Paden for his 4th goal of the game, the 9th of the match.

“I think all my goals have been back-post tap-ins, clean-ups after a saved shot, or power-play goals,” said Paden.

When asked how he gets his goals, Paden credited his goals to the team, because without their passes or shots, his positioning alone wouldn’t be enough to get him goals.

The fourth quarter would mirror the first. Shutting out Oly-Pen while scoring two more goals. Elliot Misic and Miguel Guevara would score the 10th and 11th goals for the Fish, ending the night with an 11-3 final score.

Glenn Paden was awarded player of the match for his 4-goal showing and now leading goal scorer for the Steelheads, having six goals so far this season. This also puts him tied for the leading goal scorer in the Western Indoor Soccer League.

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The Steelheads will have a bye for the holiday weekend but will kick off at home with a tough match on December 10th, 7 p.m. at the Snohomish Dome against the 2-0 Tacoma Stars Reserves. Tickets are available NOW.