Steelheads beat Tacoma to finish first, earn hosting rights to NWPLi Championship Match
Mireya Grey (left), Brooke Pingrey (center) and Nicole Nsa all scored goals as the Steelheads won the 2022 NWPLi regular season and will host the championship match.
TACOMA, WA—The Snohomish County FC Steelheads Indoor Women’s team beat the Tacoma Galaxy 5-4 on Saturday night at the Tacoma Soccer Center to claim top spot in the Northwest Premier League Indoor (NWPLi) regular season. The accomplishment means SnoCo FC will host the NWPLi Championship Match on Saturday April 23 at 7 PM at the Snohomish Sports Dome. It was SnoCo FC’s sixth straight victory.
The Steelheads and Galaxy finish the 8-match regular season with identical 6-1-1 records and 19 standings points. Snohomish County takes the tiebreaker thanks to winning the season series over Tacoma with a 2-2 draw back in February at the Dome and Saturday’s win in Tacoma.
2022 NWPLi Standings
Club
Games
Points
Win
Loss
Draw
GF
GA
GD
1) Snohomish County
8
19
6
1
1
43
30
+13
2) Tacoma Galaxy
8
19
6
1
1
47
26
+21
Oly Town Artesians
8
12
4
4
0
65
59
+6
Oly-Pen Force
8
7
2
5
1
36
48
-12
Whatcom Waves
7
1
0
7
1
27
55
-28
*=FINALISTS
Snohomish played a smothering defense and opportunistic offense for the first three quarters against the Galaxy. Tacoma scored the opener to take a 1-0 leader with 7 minutes left in the first quarter.
Just back from international duty with Jamaica, Mireya Grey scored two goals as the Steelheads started strong with a 2-1 lead. She netted one in the first quarter and another early in the second.
In the second quarter the Fish continued to control the match. Estera Levinte scored an eye-opening goal by beating several defenders and crushing a shot home from the left side in the box to make it 3-1. Nicole Nsa added a goal of her own before halftime and the visiting team was looking good up 4-1.
Tacoma sought to answer the second half with a run of their own but instead it was the Steelheads scoring their 5th goal when Brooke Pingrey banged home a pass off of a free kick from the top of the circle that was sent her way by Maggie Tonkin. Snohomish ended the third quarter on a powerplay that carried over to the 4th. They couldn’t convert during the stretch and that gave Tacoma a glimmer of hope.
The Galaxy came back to life, scoring 3 unanswered goals in the 4th quarter to make for a climactic finish. It was 5-4 with under 30 seconds to go when Tacoma was awarded a power play chance on a Snohomish blue card. The Galaxy flooded the Steelheads box but couldn’t get anything to go in and the horn sounded ending the match.
The defensive core under the goalkeeping watch of Kaitlin MacKenzie came up big when the match was on the line. The total team effort earned the Fish an opportunity to lift a trophy in their home arena.
Stay tuned to all Fish channels this week as we countdown to the championship match. The Snohomish Sports Dome will also be working on some fun additions to what should be an exciting event!
