BELLEVUE — An early defensive miscue put Hoquiam behind just five minutes into the match and the Grizzlies never recovered as The Bush School defeated Hoquiam 3-0 in a Class 1A State boys soccer tournament contest at Interlake High School on Tuesday.

The Blazers were able to create a set piece in the fifth minute and put three runners in the box. A Blazer attacker was able to fire a shot home and make the game 1-0.

“We are better than that,” Hoquiam head coach Fidel Sanchez said. “We should not be letting those kind of goals in. After that the game really even out. We had attacks on them and had pieces where they had to really work to defend.”

Bush maintained the 1-0 lead at halftime before adding another goal in the 54th minute. The Blazers were able to get a corner kick and were able to head in the kick to take a 2-0 lead.

The deficit forced the Grizzlies to gamble and pull a midfielder forward. While Hoquiam was able to put some pressure on the Blazers, Bush took advantage of formation change and was able to put in a long shot in the 73rd minute to round out the scoring.

“Anytime you go against a district champion you are going to have a really tough team on your hands,” Sanchez said. “We knew that we were going to come up against a tough team and it is just unfortunate how the bracket works. We were very excited to see our boys bounce back. I was very proud of the guys the way they bounced back. We played like a true No. 2 seed. Once we figured out we could play with them, we were right there with them.”

Sanchez cited the defensive play of Andre’s Vazquez and the work of Johnny Smith in goal.

The loss ends the season for the Grizzlies with a record of 11-7.