HOOD RIVER — The Eagles rebounded from a loss to Wilsonville in its Northwest Oregon Conference (NWOC) boys soccer opener with an exciting 3-0 win over La Salle Prep on Oct. 9 in Milwaukie.
The Eagles (2-1 NWOC, 5-3-2 overall) and three-time defending league champion La Salle Prep (3-1, 4-5-1) played a scoreless first half before Hood River Valley (HRV) pulled away with a flurry of second-half goals. The win snapped La Salle’s three-game win streak and solidified the Eagles’ fourth-place position in the nine-team league standings. The top four teams automatically qualify for the 16-team OSAA state playoffs beginning Nov. 5.
Against La Salle, after a scoreless 58 minutes, Hood River broke the tie on a spinning, one-touch shot from Julian Lara. A hard La Salle foul near the artificial turf’s 25-yard (football) line, led to an Aran Garcia free kick. Garcia’s left-foot blast was deflected by a Falcon player in a group of players 15 yards in front of the goal.
Andro Mendez made a good effort to keep the ball from bounding back to midfield by extending his left leg and flicking the ball to the left of a group of players. Lara, who had circled around the outside of the group, came back to Mendez’s deflection and one-touched a hard, right-foot shot to the right of the La Salle keeper - who was caught flat footed.
Hood River went up 2-0 some 20 minutes later. Geovanni Macias controlled a long free kick — after another La Salle foul — and sent a through-ball toward the left corner. Garcia ran onto the ball near the sideline and after a touch so he could separate from his defender, struck a left-footed crossing pass. The ball sailed through to the right middle where Lara had looped around the defense. He controlled the cross forward and slammed a hard shot past the oncoming La Salle goalie.
Arguably the best goal, at least the most unexpected, came with 8:41 remaining. Macias boxed out his defender to control a throw-in near the left sideline. He chased down the ball and delivered a beautiful, no-look crossing pass toward the center of the field. Sebastian Clarkson, who had entered the game a minute before as a substitute for the cramping Garcia, ran onto the cross, leaped into the air and headed it past the onrushing La Salle goalie just inside the penalty kick line.
The Eagles have won four of their past five contests and they’ll reach the midpoint of their eight-game NWOC schedule with an Oct. 15 home match versus Centennial (2-1-1, 5-3-2 overall). Hood River then plays Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. at Parkrose in east Portland.
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