Tri-Valley Conference Champion The Dalles ended the best season in school history by advancing to the OSAA Class 4A girls soccer quarterfinals, where the Riverhawks lost to No. 3-seeded North Marion, 5-1, on Nov. 4 at Woodburn High School.
The No. 6 Riverhawks (10-3-2), guided by TVC Coach-of-the-Year Colby Tonn, had a good start, taking a 1-0 lead on freshman forward Ariana Gonzalez’s 10th goal this season. The Oregon West Conference Champion Huskies (13-3) responded by scoring two goals to take a 2-1 halftime advantage. The third-ranked Huskies added two more goals early in the second half.
“North Marion outplayed us today, but we had a good run,” said Tonn, a 10th-year coach who led The Dalles to the playoffs for a second straight year. “Over the last four years we’ve worked on changing the expectations and the standard of the program."
Tonn guided the Riverhawks into the quarterfinals for the first time since 1999.
It was the final high school soccer game for seniors Violet Young, Lezley Castillo, Amyrah Hill, Jazmine DeLaCruz, Karen Cervantes, Lilly Gabel, Alexia Diaz, and Lindsey Vazquez. DeLaCruz and Hill played on the team for four years. Vazquez didn’t play on Saturday because she was recovering from an injury.
“Having Amyrah and Jazmine here for four years and seeing them progress not just as soccer players, but turning into young adults with their maturity was nice to see,” Tonn said. “I’m going to miss all of the seniors and I’m excited to see what they’ll do after this season.”
The Riverhawks advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time since 1999 following a 2-0 win over the visiting Newport High Cubs (9-6-1) in a first-round state playoff home game Oct. 31.
“I was very happy to help our team get a win; it’s very exciting to move onto the next round of the playoffs,” Ariana Gonzalez said. “If felt amazing to get the win and we played a real good game. We had a lot of chances to score, and we had a lot of near misses, but that’s okay. My sister and I connect a lot with each other on goal-scoring opportunities.”
Lilyana Gonazalez had the assist on a goal scored by Ariana. Sophomore midfielder Natalia Elias scored a second-half goal on a free kick from 30 yards, for her fifth goal of the season, with three minutes left in the game, to put The Dalles ahead 2-0.
“I just put my mind into it, and I felt confident that I could make it, and then, it just went in,” said Elias. “That was the biggest goal of my career, for sure, since it was in a playoff game. It’s really exciting being in the playoffs for a second straight year. It took a lot of hard work to get here; we’ve worked our butts off all season and it’s great that we made it to the quarterfinals.”
Tonn said: “I’m really proud of our back line defensive group of Jaki Negrete, Abril Rincon, Yaritza Torres-Escobedo, Cervantes, and goalkeepers Olivia Prado and Yadhira Cruz-Torres. The girls just kept plugging away and then after getting the second goal, it was a big sigh of relief for us.”
The victory was the Riverhawks’ first in the state playoffs since 1999, when The Dalles won a Class 3A/2A/1A second round game, 4-0, over South Umpqua.
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