Hood River midfielder Ximena Santillan pushes the ball up field during a match last season. This season, Santillan and the Eagles have a new coach and new competition as they moved to the Northwest Oregon Conference.
Hood River midfielder Ximena Santillan pushes the ball up field during a match last season. This season, Santillan and the Eagles have a new coach and new competition as they moved to the Northwest Oregon Conference.
The Hood River Valley High girls soccer team begins its fall schedule after an offseason that include a number of significant changes.
One of the most notable differences is that the Eagles have a new head coach in Leonor Lopez Agiurre, who was hired to replace Amanda Orand.
“This is my first year and there’s been a lot of changes for our team, but I think it’s going to be a very exciting season for us,” said Lopez Agiurre, a first-year high school coach. “I kind of think that we’ll be in somewhat of a rebuilding mode. I can definitely see that we have great leadership ability from the juniors and seniors on our team.”
The Eagles started practice Aug. 15 with 42 players for their JV and varsity teams in preparation for the 14-game season. The Eagles played in a jamboree Aug. 26 at Nelson High School in Clackamas, which was followed by their season opener Aug. 30 at North Salem High School (result was after the printed edition deadline).
Hood River will have many new faces on the field when its plays its first home game Sept. 8 at 5 p.m. versus The Dalles in a Gorge rivalry match at HRV’s Henderson Community Stadium.
Hood River, 3-10-1 last year, lost nine seniors to graduation last spring. The Eagles have six seniors who will be providing leadership this year, including Stellar Peil, Sarah Mata, Anaya Castillo, Ximena Santillan, Sarah Davies, and Monty Ruggles.
The Eagles will rely on freshman forwards Yareli Hernandez and Maggy Clermont to help lead their offensive attack. Peil will anchor the Eagle defense at her goalkeeper position, along with backup freshman keeper Valeria Miramontes.
“There’s a lot of things that we need to work on offensively, but I definitely feel that Yareli and Maggy will be our top goal scorers this season,” said Lopez Agiurre. “They’ve been playing in club soccer teams since they were very young. They both definitely show the skills, discipline, and the mindset of putting balls into the net. I definitely believe that the beginning of the season is when you build and make your improvements so that you can have a successful season.”
Hood River moved into the nine-team Class 5A Northwest Oregon Conference. The Eagles will have shorter road trips, as they’ll compete against teams located primarily in the Portland metro area, instead of traveling to central and eastern Oregon, as they did when they were in the Intermountain Conference. The Eagles begin an eight-game NWOC schedule Sept. 26 at home versus the Canby High Cougars. Canby was 1-10-3 last year in Class 6A and the Cougars moved down to 5A this year.
“It’s going to be interesting to see how we’ll do in a new conference,” said Lopez Agiurre. “It will be a different level of competition than the girls are used to from last year.”
The NWOC includes Canby, Centennial, Hillsboro, La Salle Prep, Milwaukie, Parkrose, Putnam, and the defending Class 5A Champion Wilsonville High Wildcats. Wilsonville lost nine players to graduation but will likely be a league title contender again along with La Salle, which played Wilsonville in the championship game last November and lost 4-2.
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