BELLINGHAM, WA— South Sound FC beat Bellingham United 2-1 on Friday night at Civic Stadium to retake first place in the Evergreen Premier League and ensure that an EPLWA champion won’t be crowned until the final day of the season on Sunday.

The match drew 838 fans, the largest crowd of the season in the EPLWA.

EVERGREEN PREMIER LEAGUE Pts GP W L T GF GA GD SOUTH SOUND FC 28 13 9 3 1 22 12 +10 SPOKANE SHADOW 26 12 8 2 2 22 11 +11 VANCOUVER VICTORY FC 25 13 8 4 1 31 23 +8 BELLINGHAM UNITED 20 14 6 6 2 32 29 +3 YAKIMA UNITED FC 16 14 5 8 1 32 37 -5 WENATCHEE UNITED FC 15 13 5 8 0 27 31 -4 SEATTLE STARS FC 14 13 4 7 2 24 27 -3 WESTSOUND FC 10 14 3 10 1 15 35 -20

With their win the Shock pull back in front of Spokane 28 points to 26. The Shadow can jump back into first place on Saturday night when they host Seattle Stars FC at 7 PM at Spokane Falls Community College. A tie or a loss by Spokane in that match would mean South Sound would head into Sunday with the race back in their own hands.

On Sunday the league title will be decided when South Sound plays at Vancouver and Spokane hosts Wenatchee United.

Spokane wins the EPLWA title if: the Shadow win their matches on Saturday and Sunday, or they win one of them and South Sound loses at Vancouver.

South Sound wins if: the Shock beat Vancouver on Sunday and the Shadow lose or draw on Saturday or Sunday.

Vancouver wins if: Spokane loses or draws both of their matches and the Victory beat South Sound by at least two goals. A Spokane Victory on Saturday would eliminate Vancouver ahead of Sunday’s matches.

Bellingham 1-2 South Sound

Micah Wenzel (penalty kick) and Vincent McCluskey scored first-half goals as South Sound hung on to get a huge win over the Hammers on Friday night. Tyler Bjork scored his 13th goal of the season to lead the goalKING race but the second-half tally wasn’t enough for the Hammers. South Sound goalkeeper JJ Olson was red-carded in the second half. The Shock played with ten men and field player Max Harvey in goal the rest of the way (20 minutes.)

South Sound will draw from their player pool of 25 to replace Olson for Sunday’s match. Joining the Shock in Vancouver will be goalkeepers Chris Kintz and Mauricio Sanchez.

The Hammers finished their first season in the EPLWA at 6-6-2 on 20 points. The crowd lifted the BUFC season attendance average for home matches to 545.

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