Winter-like weather conditions didn’t derail the Vikings from keeping their unbeaten streak alive.
The Vikings nabbed their sixth consecutive victory of the season, crushing a winless Bethel squad 6-0 on March 28 at Sparks Stadium in downtown Puyallup. Jordan Heale scored a team-high two goals for the Vikings and Zach Gardner, Justin Veltung, Kyle Gaedke and Rafi Azami chipped in one goal each in the victory. Heale added two assists and David Beauchene, Brian Kim, Gaedke and Veltung recorded an assist as well. In addition, Kyle Bilharz nabbed his fourth shutout of the 2008 campaign.
Heale, who is one of the Vikings’ leading scorers, said his team could have put more goals on the scoreboard.
“It easily could have been 12-0. They actually surprised me. Bethel played better against us than I thought they could,” Heale said. “Even though they lost, they came ready to play. I honestly didn’t think they would be as good as they were. They fought hard.”
Vikings coach Matt White said the game plan called for his team to put up as many goals as possible in the first half of play.
“Our goal was to score early and often,” White said. “We didn’t know what the weather was going to do so we wanted to get up early.”
The Vikings scored four first half goals, putting the game out of reach by the time the first half came to a conclusion.
“We did what we were supposed to do tonight,” White said. “We kept our record intact and are 6-0. That’s a pretty good start to the season.”
With the game already in hand at halftime, White said it gave him a golden opportunity to empty his bench in the second half.
“Everyone got to play tonight. We got some guys who typically don’t get as much playing time into the game,” White said. “Probably the most important thing was that we came out of this game healthy. Nobody got hurt and that’s big for us considering all of the games we have against our rivals coming up.”
The Vikings are on a roll heading into crucial South Puget Sound League contests in the next three weeks. Thus far, the Vikings have tallied 35 goals in six games and have allowed just four goals in that span.
Print
E-Mail