Garcia boots Sequim

Senior striker nets four goals in team’s 5-3 victory.

Franco Garcia appeared a hydroplane amongst rowboats at waterlogged Memorial Stadium Tuesday night, motoring through Sequim’s defense for not one, two nor three, but rather four goals in Bremerton’s 5-3 victory against the Wolves.

Garcia’s scoring splash brought his team-high goal tally to nine, but more importantly, cannonballed the Knights (3-5 overall, 2-3 league) to an important Olympic League victory.

“This helps us out a lot,” Garcia said of the win. “(Sequim’s) a pretty good team.”

With three Bremerton starters out of the lineup on academic probation, Garcia — one of the team’s three captains — assumed control early in the game, netting three of his goals in the first half.

“We had a couple starters with grade problems,” Garcia said after the game. “We played hard. My teammates followed through.”

The Knights trailed 1-0 after Sequim’s Kai Antrim scored seven minutes in, but Garcia’s foot woke up a minute later as he found the back of the net in the eighth minute, evening the score 1-1.

He scored again at the 12-minute mark and a third time in the 23rd minute, and a Jordan Sather goal between the two — in the 15th minute — helped the Knights to a commanding 4-1 halftime lead, effectively putting the game on ice.

Garcia’s scoring barrage continued on a 60th-minute goal, putting BHS ahead 5-1, before coach Randy Lund substituted him out.

“He’s just fun to watch,” Lund said of Garcia, who also was the Knights’ leading scorer last season. “He can turn on a dime, he’s got a nose for the goal.”

Sequim’s defense — slowed in part by the slick turf — simply was not fast enough to run with Garcia, who slipped through the Wolves’ last line of defense on numerous occasions.

“We found their weakness,” Garcia said. “We beat them up top and my teammates found me.”

Capitalizing on nearly every scoring opportunity he had, Garcia only misfired a few times.

“He’s good with the ball at his feet,” Lund said of Garcia’s ability to create shots. “And he can finish.”

Lund cited the play of his midfielders, who solidified the middle part of the field, as the key to opening the door for Garcia and the other forwards.

“We won the middle-third of the field,” he said. “We counterattacked and got the ball.”

But if Bremerton hopes to hang with the Olympic League elite, it will need production from players other than Garcia. At 2-3 in league play heading into Thursday’s game against Klahowya — results were not available at press time — the Knights hung near the middle of the Olympic League pack.

“It’s a big win, cause Sequim is an Olympic League team,” Lund said of Tuesday’s win, adding that the team needed the big-time win after dropping a March 18 overtime heartbreaker to Olympic (5-0 league).

Sequim (3-2-1 overall, 3-2 league) got late goals from Keller Batson and John Textor, crawling to within 5-3, but it wasn’t enough.

The Knights are home today at 1:45 p.m. against 4A North Kitsap, then host North Mason at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday.

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