Bellarmine Prep pours it on early, beats Olympia, 6-2

The rain wasn’t the only thing pouring on the Olympia High School boys soccer team at Memorial Field on Tuesday afternoon.

Bellarmine Prep flooded the Bears with a half-dozen goals as well. The Lions scored three apiece in the first half and second half to sink Olympia, 6-2, in a Class 4A Narrows League match.

“They transitioned from defense to offense quicker than we did,” Olympia coach Ty Johnson said. “I think all three of their goals (in the first half) were the same way.

“They pushed forward quickly, we didn’t get back fast enough and they took advantage. They’re a good team.”

Bellarmine has scored 21 goals in five league contests, while allowing five — and never more than two in a single match. It made quick work of the first half, putting up three early on Olympia.

The game-winner came 10 minutes in, when Robert Nurmi took a cross through the box from Max Hilger, and blooped the ball in with his left foot. The Lions scored again less than two minutes later when Hilger shirked a defender on the right side to make it 2-0.

“The boys were flying, and we were very positive in our offensive play,” Bellarmine coach Joe Waters said. “We were able to take advantage of them with our pace, and of course, some good finishes as well.”

Hilger got his second goal in the 22nd minute when he buried a give-and-go pass from Jordan Williams.

“The first 20 minutes, (Hilger) just tortured their defense,” Waters said. “That’s something that we thought he had.”

The Lions snuffed out Olympia’s closest chance in the first half, inches in front of the goal line. In the 25th minute, Duncan Pidone sent a free kick into the cross bar. It bounced back into a crowded box for a few seconds before Bellarmine cleared it.

“I thought it was a good hit, so that’s all that matters,” Pidone said. “If we keep hitting those, eventually one will go in. And two went in.”

Williams — who also had two goals for the Lions — made it 4-0 Bellarmine in the 43rd minute before Olympia answered.

Pidone finally broke through for the Bears in the 57th minute, when he sent a ball across the box to find the right corner of the net. Ian Hesse beat Bellarmine goalkeeper Dylan Zurfluh in the 70th minute and tapped it in for Olympia’s only other goal.

The Lions got two more goals from Ryan Clark (66th minute) and Williams (79th) before the final whistle.

“We play at a very high tempo — physically in terms of running — aggressive game,” Waters said. “We like to be very proactive. We like to force the ball to go back as much as possible, and try and get the ball forward as quickly as possible in a controlled way. That’s kind of the feature of what we do.”

Olympia was also without senior midfielder Neil Boyle. Johnson said Boyle was called up to the Sounders Academy about a week and a half ago. Boyle was The Olympian’s All-Area player of the year last season.

“You’re proud when you see your players go on to a higher level,” Johnson said. “But as excited as I am for him, I’m just as sad for us, because he was a senior captain and a very good player.”

Olympia drops to 4-3-1 (3-2-1 4A Narrows) with the loss and has been bested by both Bellarmine (6-1-1, 3-0-1) and Gig Harbor in the first of two meetings with each team. The Lions and Tides will likely contend for final league title — the 4A Narrows will disband at the end of the school year.

This story was originally published April 12, 2016 at 8:46 PM with the headline "Bellarmine Prep pours it on early, beats Olympia, 6-2."