Bucs snag Olympic League championship.

KINGSTON — Kingston’s head soccer coach Craig Smith is beaming with pride, and rightly so.

This is the first year the Bucs have played as a unified force, and they made history.

The Bucs scored 38 goals in the regular season, only had eight goals scored against them, and nine of its 15 games were shutouts.

“It’s the best defensive team I have coached in recent memory,” Smith said. “We built a solid foundation at this school and we helped utilize the incredible school spirit this new entity instantly had.”

On Tuesday evening on the fields at Sequim, the Bucs continued their history-making ways.

The Bucs had a shot at winning the league if they beat the Wolves and Olympic lost to or tied Peninsula.

Kingston took care of its business with a shutout out victory over the Wolves, 3-0.

And Peninsula did the Bucs a favor, as it defeated the Trojans 4-0.

The Bucs were the official Olympic league champions, but they didn’t know it yet.

Smith learned of his team’s monumental accomplishment on the bus ride home from Sequim.

Upon hearing the good news Smith paused for a moment before turning to address his team.

The more than 30 people on the bus became quite, as Smith stood before them and said Olympic lost.

The response was a moment to remember.

“They just broke out yelling and jumping up and down,” Smith said. “They starting singing. It was a pretty rowdy bus ride home. But that’s what they wanted, they set goals.”

The ambitions Smith spoke of were decided upon after the team’s fifth game. At that time the Bucs had a 3-2 (ties) record.

The team decided it wanted to score more goals than were scored against it.

Check, the Bucs not only reached that goal — they shattered it.

The second goal was to make postseason. To do that the Bucs had to be one of the top two 2A Olympic League schools.

“We had beat all the other 2A schools at that point and had tied Port Townsend,” Smith said. “So we set that goal amongst the 2A schools we were competing against and I thought we might be able to do this.”

Check again, but this time the Bucs exceeded its second goal, as it advances to post season as the No. 1 Olympic League team.

Although Kingston’s path to champion stature has seemed easy, it wasn’t. It had to play against more experienced teams and teams that were just as hungry to be No. 1.

And one of those teams is the Sequim Wolves. The Wolves needed a win on Tuesday to stay ahead of Port Townsend as the No. 2 seed for post season Olympic League play.

“It (Tuesday) was like a playoff game,” Smith said.

He said it was an intense and physical battle.

Brian Bain got the Bucs on the scoreboard in the 28th minute of play off an assist from Josh JJ Gilson.

Sequim answered by upping its level of play. But the Bucs countered with untouchable defense, something that’s been a focus for the team all season.

The game remained 1-0 until the last third of the contest.

In the 68th minute Gilson scored off a John Troka shot on goal rebound.

“It was momentary relief for me, and heightened excitement from the team and the crowd,” Smith said. “But it didn’t last long. It just motivated Sequim to play harder and more physical. When two teams are wanting the ball it gets intense.”

But Kingston had nothing to worry about.

With 4.5 minutes left on the clock Gilson was taken down behind the box and Kingston was awarded a penalty kick. Smith said usually only one or two players vie to take the kick because of the pressure. On Tuesday eight guys wanted the kick, but it was granted to captain Chris Hall, who nailed the shot and put “the cherry on top,” of Kingston’s victory.

Smith attributes the success of the Bucs first season to the player’s talented and work ethic.

“I was given kids with a great deal of talent,” Smith said. “They came with desire and a high work rate and I think we surprised everybody.”

Among the team’s talent is Gilson.

Gilson only played 10 of the season’s 15 games, but he’s the second leading scorer for both the Olympic and Kitsap Peninsulas.

On May 10 the Bucs play Fife in a loser-out match up. If the Bucs win, they advance to the first round of the state tournament.

“It’s a loser-out game against a team that’s been there before and people have never heard of Kingston,” Smith said. “We’ll have to go introduce ourselves.”

But Kingston is no longer a dark horse, competition beware.