It didn’t elicit a rave review from the head coach, but the Portland Timbers under-23 side gave a Kiggins Bowl audience four goals to cheer in a Premier Development League soccer win over the Tacoma Tide on Saturday.
Portland dominated possession and scored twice in each half for a 4-0 win over Tacoma before an announced crowd of 790 in Vancouver.
Four players scored for Portland, which scored two goals in the final eight minutes to ensure a win that improves the Timbers to 5-4-1 in the Northwest Division of the PDL. It was their third win over the Tide.
The game featured three Camas High grads. Brent Richards played 88 minutes and had an assist for the Timbers. Quinton Beasley played 89 minutes for Tacoma and drew a penalty kick taken by Daniel Gray that Portland keeper Jason Dodson stopped. Nick Palodichuk came on in the second half for the Timbers and had several contested scoring chances.
Richards and Beasley play at the University of Washington. Palodichuk is entering his first season at Duke. Beasley was with the Timbers U23s last summer, but said he decided to stay in Seattle to do conditioning work with Huskies teammates this summer.
Steven Evans opened the scoring on a penalty kick in the eighth minute, and Dylan Tucker scored in the 21st off an assist from Richards.
“Our nemesis is the fact that we don’t put teams away,” Timbers coach Jim Rilatt said. “We had lots of good chances. We tried hard, we hit good balls, had good goalkeeping. If we put away another one in the first half, that game’s done.”
Ricky Abrego came on in the 81st minute and supplied an assist and a goal in the closing stages. His pass set up Erik Hurtado’s goal that made the score 3-0 with less than eight minutes remaining, and he scored in the final minute.
“The crowd here has always been fun,” Rilatt said of playing in Vancouver. “We really wanted to bring a show to them and entertain them. At the end we did.”
The Timbers U23s will play a match at Doc Harris Stadium in Camas on July 8.
