The first half belonged to Leonardo Cortez, and the second half belonged to Rayan Moustafa.
Cortez scored North Thurston’s two first-half goals, and Moustafa continued his offensive tear with a second-half brace to lead North Thurston to a 4-0 win over Lakes at South Sound Stadium Monday night.
William Doerrheim earned the shutout in goal for the Rams, who paced the Lancers with 16 shots on goal compared to five.
“I thought we played a really solid and complete game today. I thought we controlled large portions of the match, and us coaches were really happy with the way the boys played,” North Thurston coach Tristan Glazer said. “We played with purpose and patience and created some really good opportunities.”
Cortez’s first goal of the night came from a short corner, assisted by Royce Rodriguez in the 23rd minute. Similarly to the Rams’ 8-0 win over River Ridge last week, once one kick found the back of the net, the floodgates opened.
Four minutes later, Cortez scored again on a pass from Moustafa to give North Thurston a 2-0 halftime advantage. Moustafa, fresh off a career-high four goals against River Ridge in his last outing, tallied two in the second half against Lakes, including one in the 51st and another on a pass by Balde Irakoze in the 76th minute.
Although the Rams earned their third straight victory and second straight clean sheet, Glazer believed they left some on the pitch Monday night.
“I think we could’ve been more ruthless and played with slightly more intensity throughout the match as a whole, so that’s something to build on going into our next game Thursday,” he said. “Really proud of the team, and we deserved the result we got.”
The biggest test for North Thurston (6-2-4, 3-1-1 Puget Sound League) is coming Thursday night as Capital (10-1-1, 5-0-0 Puget Sound League) comes to South Sound Stadium. The Cougars won 2-0 in the first meeting at Swarthout Field on March 31, one of seven straight wins for Capital.
