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BIG FEAT. Spencer Schomaker scored three goals in the 6-2 Tide victory over Yakima to help the team win the Northwest Division and head to the playoffs in Fresno.

Tacoma’s PDL soccer team clicking in time

In playoffs Tide, Fresno meet again

By Rick Walter

One recent performance isn’t as much of a guarantee of a team’s sharpness as coaches might hope, but it is still generally a good sign. And if the Tacoma Tide’s performance in its do-or-die game against Yakima July 19 is a fair indication, there is reason to be optimistic that the team’s first playoff game of the season in Fresno July 26 won’t be its last.

Led by Spencer Schomaker’s three goals, the Tide easily defeated the Reds, 6-2, July 19, winning the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the Premier Development League of the United Soccer Leagues. This will be the Tide’s second trip to the playoffs in two years.

“They’ve earned this chance,” said Tide coach Fran O’Brien. “They are doing a lot of things well and they are playing very well together.”

For Schomaker and his teammates, there wasn’t much choice but to do so. Despite a 9-4-1 record going into the last two regular season games, there was no room for error. A loss in either would have likely eliminated them.

“We were up against it. When your back is against the wall you are definitely motivated to work harder.”

Schomaker said he likes the attitude the team has coming into conference quarterfinal against Fresno, the team that eliminated the Tide last season.

“We are really coming together as a team and the chemistry has never been better. There are quite a few of us on the team who played in that game last year. Right now we feel we can beat anybody.”

Schomaker has scored five goals in the past two games and has climbed into the league’s top-10 scorers along with teammate Rory Agu.

So with the victory against Yakima came a playoff game and the division championship. David Falk from goaltacoma.com explains the math: “In Utah, Ogden upset Vancouver, 1-0. TFC and Vancouver finished the season tied with identical 11-4-1 records and 34 standings points. The PDL standings tiebreaker rules list the first tie-breaker as head-to-head points. Since Tacoma and Vancouver split their two matches this year (5-5 goals for and against) the next tie breaker was overall league goals for and against. The Tide win the Northwest Division crown, their first ever, by virtue of scoring 46 goals and giving up only 23 (+23) to Vancouver’s 34-14 (+20).”

Schomaker, a 6-3, 180-pound midfielder who played at Roosevelt High School in Seattle, will be returning to Syracuse University for his senior year and would love to have a summer championship title to take with him.

But first comes Fresno.

“I think as a team, we will be very focused,” said Schomaker, who is a Big-East Academic All-Star and was on the (Syracuse) Athletic Director’s Honor Roll in the spring.

“We are coming off a real good game, and that’s not a fluke. We’ve been playing really well most of the season.”

Although the offense was lively against the Reds July 19, the defense was on top of its game, too.

The defensive unit has worked hard all summer under O’Brien and takes pride in seven shutouts and several other strong performances.

“We feel very confident going down there,” said Tide goalie Jordan Jennings. “We are playing together and then there is the thing that they beat us last year, so yeah, that gives us a little bit of a revenge factor.”

The winner in Fresno will play the winner of the Vancouver vs. San Fernando Valley game, also on July 26. The winner of that game will represent the Western Conference. The four conference champions (Central, Eastern, Southern and Western) will take it from there.

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