Bellingham-Bellingham United FC played a mothers day game in their "road blue shirts" in front of over 1000 fans, and gave them quite a show. The team defeated Okanogan Challenge 5-0 and in doing so, earned the first shut out of the year.

            “I wanted us to come out and defend better,” said Head Coach Lance Calloway. “We need to take care of the basics and provide cover for each other.”

            The team was coming off a 3-5 defeat from Saturday May 12 against Metro-Ford Coquitlam SC. 

            “Our guys did a great job,” Calloway said. “Some of them played yesterday and came out and played hard today.”

            Christopher Jepson was on of those players. He played 60 minutes on Saturday and then played 90 minutes on Sunday.

            “I felt good coming out today,” Jepson said. “We wanted to redeem ourselves from yesterday, we corrected ourselves and got the shutout.” 

            Jepson added, “We were playing for our moms today too.”

            Andrew Weishaar started the scoring in the seventh minute of the game.  He got on the end of a Tyler Bjork cross and put it in the back of the net for a goal.  A few minutes later Oscar Jimenez put a ball into the box that was headed in by an Okanogan Challenge player to give United a 2-0 lead. 

            The team was about to add a third goal in quick succession but the ref blew his whistle without giving advantage and called the goal back.  That didn’t prevent the fans from celebrating though. 

Keeper Drew Smiley was injured right before halftime and Leo Cohen was asked to take over.

            “We were tired today,” Jimenez said. “We mentally got past that though.  I was tired too but I saw that my teammates were giving everything and I had to match that.”

            Bjork got himself to the back post for two of Jimenez’s crosses and added two more goals for United.  One of those goals was a beautiful header that easily beat the keeper in the 71 minute.

            Jimenez would be a part of the final goal of the match as he set up Joel Grossman in the final minute of the game. With three assists and forcing the own goal, Jimenez was named man of the match and received ‘the Hammer’ given to the man of the match.

            “It feels awesome,” said Jimenez. “I watched the team play in the opener and saw the fans. It made me want to come out and make them go crazy.  It’s really cool.  It was also great to be able to play in front of my parents because they don’t get to watch me play that often.”

            The fans came out strong for the second week in a row.  Mothers got in free today, and next week on May 20 any student with a valid student ID will get free admission.

            “The fans help us so much,” Jepson said. “They are our crowd and really are a 12^th man.  Its cool to see them come out and support us.”

            The team’s next game is at home on May 20 against Victoria United at 2 pm.  United is now 2-2-0 on the year.

GOALS:

BUFC: Andrew Weishaar (Assist Tyler Bjork), Own Goal, Tyler Bjork (A. Oscar Jimenez), Tyler Bjork (A. Oscar Jimenez), Joel Grossman (A. Oscar Jimenez)

Okanogan: NONE