Hood River Head Coach Jaime Rivera explains a drill to his team on Aug. 23. The Eagles will face new division foes in the Northwest Oregon Conference for the next four years.
Hood River Head Coach Jaime Rivera explains a drill to his team on Aug. 23. The Eagles will face new division foes in the Northwest Oregon Conference for the next four years.
It’s easy to draw a parallel between the Greek mythological character, Actaeon (pronounced “ayk-tee-uhn”), and Hood River Valley’s foray into a new soccer league, the Northwest Oregon Conference (pronounced “tough”).
Actaeon, a famous hero, went from being the hunter to the hunted before his rather gruesome death. Hood River Valley played the role of hunter early in Coach Jaime Rivera’s tenure until the Eagles became the hunted after back-to-back state championships in 2014 and 2015. Since then, HRV continued to be the class of the Intermountain Conference, but statewide the Eagles were relegated to the chase pack. That may seem a tad harsh thing to say about a program that can boast of 15 consecutive state playoff appearances, but as they say, once a team tastes success, the tongue wants more.
This year’s schedule is such that it will prepare the Eagles for another playoff run — if they can survive, that is. “It’s hard to predict any results by the end of the season with a new league, but we’re going to have our hands full,” Rivera said. “We can compete with all of them. (But) we do have some catching up to do. It’s not 2014 any more.”
The Eagles are more than familiar with the schools in the Northwest Oregon Conference. The NWOC includes 2021 and 2019 Class 5A state champion La Salle Prep, 2019, 2016 and 2015 5A runner-up Wilsonville, Putnam, which has qualified for two of the past three state playoffs, Hillsboro, and recent 6A transplants, Forest Grove, Centennial and Canby.
“We know the teams, that’s not the issue,” said Rivera. “It’s that this kind of a league, and non-league schedule … it’s kind of lethal. We’ve got probably one of the toughest schedules in the state. I say it every year but it’s the truth.”
That non-league slate includes Lakeridge and Franklin, who won the 2016 and 2019 Class 6A state championships, respectively. What’s more, the Eagles enter the new league with one of the younger teams under Rivera’s coaching tutelage. “We had a lot of seniors graduate last year (10),” he said. “It was a small junior class that was looking to transition as seniors and so that shows with this year’s roster — it’s a small senior class (five).”
Three seniors have varsity experience: Kiernan Chown is a third-year varsity midfielder; and Dameon Solorzano and John Hotchkiss are into their second years on varsity. Rivera said Chown is like a number of this year’s players in that they are comfortable playing multiple positions.
“A parent, who knows a lot about the game, came up to me the other day and said, ‘Jaime, you have a lot of good players but no stars — a lot of really good players.’ And players like Kiernan, who play multiple positions. It’s going to be a well-rounded team. Young, but a well-rounded team. Between those three guys, there’s good midfield presence.”
In goal will be either junior Eric Leon or sophomore Eamon Anslinger. “It’s a competition,” Rivera said. Leon has a few seasons of experience between the posts, but Anslinger is a newcomer. “He threw on the goalie jersey one day and the gloves because we didn’t have a goalie and he did a great job for us to finish off the summer league,” Rivera said. “And now he’s trying to give it a shot here on the varsity team. Both kids really want to play so we’ll see how that goes.”
With seven sophomores on the varsity roster, “it’s going to be a young team, but they’re feisty,” Rivera said. “I will say it’s a skilled team, too. We’re going to rely on the passing game. We’d be fools not to. And then anticipating and just sharp and aggressive defense. We have to try to press teams — similar to basketball. That’s going to be our goal, finding those right moments to press — overwhelm opponents with our numbers and look to counterattack, too. Look for the fastbreak.”
Leading that break will be juniors Edgar Lachino and Jordan McDoal, with support from Oscar Avalos, who started in midfield last season as a sophomore, and Ceasar Guardado, also a junior. “It was important to have all these sophomores on varsity last year,” Rivera said, also referring to junior defender, Omar Mozqueda. “Those boys put in serious minutes last year.”
The Eagles were scheduled to play Gresham on Tuesday of this week and will be at Gorge rival The Dalles on Sept. 8.
Commented
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.