VANCOUVER — The inability to add a scoring punch to stellar defense resulted in a long trip south for Hoquiam’s and Montesano’s boys soccer teams.
Toledo-Winlock United made Gustavo Barragan’s late first-half goal stand up to successfully defend its District IV Class 1A championship with a 1-0 victory over Hoquiam on Saturday at the King’s Way Christian field.
Earlier in the day, White Salmon claimed the district’s third and final state berth by eliminating Montesano, 3-0.
Already assured of its fourth state appearance in the last five years, Hoquiam (11-6) will head to the Seattle area to open state against Bush of Seattle, probably on Tuesday.
Montesano concluded its season with a 7-10-2 record.
United 1, Grizzlies 0
Hoquiam turned in one of its finest defensive performances against a Toledo-United team that improved to 17-1 overall.
Although United had the advantage in time of possession and outshot the Grizzlies 14-5, most of its attempts were long-range shots that were easily handled by goalkeeper Johnny Smith.
“They are a high-powered offense. They’ve been whupping up on everybody — 1A, 2A teams,” HHS coach Fidel Sanchez noted. “We played great defensively.”
During a contest contested primarily in the midfield, however, the Grizzlies generated relatively few scoring chances of their own. They used through balls to create a few opportunities in the first half, but their normally adept possession passing was lacking.
Toledo-Winlock capitalized on a rare Grizzly mental lapse for the game’s lone goal.
A Hoquiam defender was taken down on a United attack with about two minutes remaining in the first half. Anticipating a foul call, the Grizzlies momentarily relaxed. No whistle was forthcoming, however, and Barragan took a header from Isaac Garibay to send about 15-yard shot into the lower left corner of the net.
“They did not have a quality shot on-target except for that shot,” said Sanchez, who stressed that he had no complaint about the officiating overall.
Hoquiam’s Juventino Perez had a couple of second-half free kicks from just outside the box. A United defender headed away the first try, in the 47th minute.
Perez punched what appeared to be a cross about 12 minutes later, but put it too close to the net and goalkeeper Alan Contreras came out to make a leaping save.
That, as it turned out, was Hoquiam’s last decent opportunity. As a light rain intensified, United kept the ball primarily in Grizzly territory for the final 10 minutes.
Senior co-captain Andre’s Vasquez, who marked up against the speedy, high-scoring Barragan, drew Sanchez’s praise for a particularly fine outing.
Bruins 3, Bulldogs 0
Montesano did well to keep the game scoreless for most of the first half.
Outshooting Monte 8-1 in the half, White Salmon (10-7-1) had several near-misses in the opening 38 minutes. Beau Modrich and Finn Coffin rattled shots off the crossbar and post, respectably.
But the Bruins finally broke the scoring ice only seconds prior to intermission when Jose Eudave settled a pass just inside the box and tucked a shot into the lower left-corner.
Moving up defenders to aid in the attack, the Bulldogs were much more offensive-minded in the second half. Their best chance came in the 53rd minute, when goalkeeper Federico Borgonovo blocked Riccardo Marangon’s mid-range shot and the Bulldogs were unable to secure the rebound.
White Salmon’s Fernando Celaya-Aldana headed in a corner kick in the 67th minute to make it 2-0. The Bruins added a superfluous final goal from Brandon Alfaro with about eight minutes remaining.
Montesano coach Rick Denholm speculated that two overtime games earlier in the week might have taken something out of the Bulldogs.
“The energy level wasn’t there in the first half,” he said. “I thought we played a lot better in the second half. I was happy with the way they played in the second half. We couldn’t finish.”
Actually, what may have been Monte’s best scoring chance came relatively early in the game. Senior midfielder Kyle Cox crossed nicely to a wide-open Connor Parkinson inside the box. Parkinson, however, couldn’t quite control the ball and the Bruins wound up clearing.
Denholm saluted his 10 seniors — Cox, Marangon, Eric Blanchard, Ken Moua, Dane Norberg, Cole Yanney, Nicolai Vikkelsoe, Hayden Klinger, Jordy Carlon and Ben Lopez.
“We had a great season,” the Bulldog coach summarized. “One kick here or there (in a shootout loss to Hoquiam on Thursday) and we could have been in the championship game.”
