Brandon Duke went for the steal against Joel Peterson.

ILWACO — The new Ilwaco soccer team drew a modest-sized but vocal crowd for its home opener March 21, which was a scoreless tie until Montesano scored two goals in the final three minutes of the first half. The Bulldogs pulled away with three more goals in the second half.

The fans are already gelling into a rambunctious soccer crowd, becoming more intense as the game became more physical, and working the referees hard. Late in the game, referees stopped the game to have the crowd warned, which naturally elicited more boos. However, the fans reluctantly pacified themselves the rest of the game.

The Fishermen held their own early on, connecting on passes and generating scoring chances. Goalie Danner Tynkila made a stop on a corner kick about 13 minutes in. Brandon Duke snuffed out a scoring chance, blocking the path of a Monte player who was moving in for a shot and tripping him up on incidental contact. Tynkila went out to challenge a one-on-zero break and kicked it away to prevent what looked certain to be a Monte goal in the 20th minute.

Finally, around the three-minute mark in the first half, Montesano scored on a kick off a defender. Monte was relentlessly on the attack in the final minutes of the half. They added another goal, and only some tough stops by Tynkila prevented further damage.

“The first half was a lot better than in Tenino,” Ilwaco coach Andrew Goodwin said. “But then they got that first goal… and that kind of broke our spirits.”

Midway through the second half, Tynkila leapt for one stop and dove for another to keep it at 2-0. But Monte put the game away in the 67th minute. After stopping an Ilwaco chance on a corner kick, their goalie made a long pass that led to a breakaway goal. Monte followed with another very close-range goal, then capped scoring with a late corner kick.

Ilwaco fell to 0-2 on the year.