For his 18th birthday, Montesano senior midfielder Mateo Sanchez’s wish was a simple one: Beat Eatonville.

He got that and so much more.

Sanchez recorded a hat trick in the first half, including a spectacular bicycle-kick goal, to lead the Bulldogs to a 4-1 win over the Cruisers on Wednesday at Montesano High School.

Monte (8-1 overall, 8-0 1A Evergreen) dominated possession throughout the first 20-plus minutes of the game and peppered shots at the Cruisers net, but to no avail as the game remained locked in a scoreless tie.

It wasn’t until the 28th minute that the Bulldogs got on the scoreboard, and did so in incredible fashion thanks to Sanchez.

After a long Montesano throw in from sophomore forward Felix Romero, Sanchez found himself with his back to the goal with the ball floating above him just outside the goal box. After the ball was deflected up in the air, Sanchez fell toward his backside and caught the ball flush with a bicycle kick, sending it into the top of the net for a rare and stunning goal in the 28th minute.

RYAN SPARKS | THE DAILY WORLD Montesano’s Mateo Sanchez, background, scores on a bicycle kick during the first half of the Bulldogs’ 4-1 win over Eatonville on Wednesday at Jack Rottle Field in Montesano.

“(The ball) was right at about head level, so I thought, ‘You know what? Whatever, just try it,’ and I looked up and it was in the top corner of the goal,” Sanchez said. “I was shocked. I didn’t think it was going to go in. I thought, ‘There was no way I just did that right now.’ I had never even tried one before.”

“For him to score on a bicycle kick, that was pretty cool,” Montesano head coach and Mateo’s father, Fidel Sanchez said. “I haven’t seen one in high school. That was my first one. … I looked up at our coaches and we all thought that was pretty cool.”

Mateo and the Bulldogs weren’t done.

Eight minutes later, Montesano pressure created a free kick opportunity from the corner of the 18-yard box. Sanchez hit a hard, low shot while several of his teammates created a screen in front of the Eatonville net. The shot skipped past the Eatonville keeper for a 2-0 lead.

Sanchez closed out the half with a goal on an penalty kick in stoppage time of the first half, giving him the natural hat trick to put Monte up 3-0 at halftime.

“I think that first goal fueled our team with a lot of energy,” he said. “Then we started attacking and setting up better shots.”

“I think we were taking the wrong shots. We were forcing the shot and making the wrong pass and that was kind of frustrating to be honest,” Coach Sanchez said of Monte’s early-game scoring drought. “But we started moving the ball to the wing and started to put a little more pressure on them and began to capitalize. That bicycle kick happened because we were able to put more pressure on them and pin them back.”

In the second half, Monte continued to pressure the Eatonville defense.

Montesano sophomore forward Felix Romero gave the Bulldogs a 4-0 lead when he made a pivot to his right to create space against a pair of Cruisers defenders and ripped a shot into the twine for a goal from just inside the 18-yard box in the 53rd minute.

RYAN SPARKS | THE DAILY WORLD Montesano forward Felix Romero, left, chases down Eatonville’s Trentten Cressman during the Bulldogs’ 4-1 win on Wednesday in Montesano.

Eatonville’s Victor Pena scored against a team of mostly Montesano reserves in the 70th minute to close out the scoring.

Monte had 16 shots on goal with 10 shots on target.

The win was a crucial one for the Bulldogs in the race for the 1A Evergreen League’s top spot as Monte extends its league lead to 2.5 games over the second-place Cruisers (6-4, 6-3).

“I just wanted to get a win today,” Mateo Sanchez said after his rousing birthday performance. “That’s the No. 2 team in the league we just played, so it was a big game to get two (games) ahead of them.”

“(Eatonville) has been beating everybody,” Coach Sanchez said. “It was one of those things where we needed to put this team away because we did not need them to hang around.”

Monte hosts Tenino in a league match scheduled for 7 p.m. on Monday.

Eatonville 0 1 – 1

Montesano 3 1 – 4

Scoring

First half – 1, Montesano, Sanchez, 28th minute. 2, Montesano, Sanchez, 36th minute. 3, Montesano, Sanchez, 40th minute.

Second half – 4, Montesano, Romero, 53rd minute. 5, Eatonville, Pena, 70th minute.

Raymond-South Bend 0, Elma 4

Elma junior standout Cason Seaberg scored four goals to lead the Eagles to a 4-0 win over Raymond-South Bend on Wednesday in Elma.

The Eagles (7-5, 5-3 1A Evergreen) scored in the eighth minute when Seaberg took a cross from sophomore forward Gregory Mendez and scored from 18 yards out for a 1-0 lead.

Approximately five minutes later, junior midfielder Hank Doelman played the ball down the left side toward Seaberg, who scored his second of the game for a 2-0 lead.

Eight minutes after halftime, Elma earned a three-goal lead when Seaberg collected a long throw-in and found space to maneuver. The reigning league MVP slotted a shot past the oncoming keeper for a 3-0 lead.

Seaberg then converted a corner kick from Doelman in the 74th minute to round out the scoring at 4-0.

Elma keeper Andy Salvatierra made two diving saves in the second half to keep a clean sheet in the game.

“I think it was a step in the right direction,” Elma head coach Carson Seaberg said. “We’re still kind of shoring up our positioning, but it’s getting better. We did some things that we wanted to do where we were able to play the ball with space and not too direct. Though Cason ended up with all the goals, we did a lot of other good things where we had multiple people in the box on some crosses and we were moving the ball up the field as a team much more consistently. … It felt like the stuff we implemented in practice, we saw a little bit more of execution today in the game. So we were pleased on that front.”

Elma hosts Tenino at 7 p.m. on Friday.

RSB 0 0 – 0

Elma 2 2 – 4

Scoring

First half — 1, Elma, Seaberg (Mendez), 8th minute. 2, Elma, Seaberg (Doelman), 14th minute.

Second half – 3, Elma, Seaberg, 48th minute. 4, Elma, Seaberg (Doelman), 74th minute.

Forks 3, Hoquiam 2

A Hoquiam lead at halftime turned into a 3-2 loss to Forks on penalty kicks Wednesday in Hoquiam.

The Grizzlies (5-4, 5-3 1A Evergreen) took a 2-0 lead in the half after freshman Brannon Gonzalez scored off a Jose Fabian assist in the 27th minute followed by a header off a Rene Garcia corner kick in the 36th minute.

But a red card late in the first half put Hoquiam down a player the rest of the game and gave Forks (2-7, 2-7) a chance to get back in the game.

The Spartans responded with two goals in the second half and earned the victory on penalty kicks after two scoreless overtime periods.

“This match, I felt we still created more opportunities throughout the match to score, but just could not capitalize on those chances,” Hoquiam head coach John Johnson said. “But like any other game, we will get back into practice and prepare for our next match. Our guys are young and we have some tough matches so these guys will really need to focus up throughout this second half of our season.”

Hoquiam hosts Eatonville at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

Forks 0 2 0 0 1 – 3

Hoquiam 2 0 0 0 – 2

(Forks wins on penalty kicks)