Trout Lake’s boys soccer team is two wins away from winning a district championship.
The Mustangs (9-4 overall, 6-2 3A/2A/1A Special District 7) were scheduled to play at Portland Christian on Monday in the first round of the playoffs (results were after the printed edition deadline). The winner of that match advances to play the winner of Tuesday’s other district semifinal — Grand View and Faith Bible — for the championship on Friday. The title match will be at Horizon Christian School in Tualatin along with the district’s third-place match.
Trout Lake Coach Timmy Waller said the season has been “a blast. … We have an awesome group of boys that are a ton of fun to be around, that work hard, and that want to compete and win. Having a team that wins a lot is great but having a group of boys that does it while working hard and being respectful on and off the field is what we want to be about.”
The Mustangs started the season with losses against Corbett and Columbia Adventist, but then went on an eight-match winning streak which included a 2-0 victory in the rematch against Columbia Adventist. In the win stretch, Trout Lake broke to a 5-0 league record, as well.
One of the league wins was via a last-minute goal against Central Christian by Tommy Goodson. The 2-0 rematch win over Columbia Adventist included goals by Ezra Sharp and Jon Kendrick — both set up by sophomore Sawyer Dean.
Trout Lake, which has a balanced team of four seniors, four juniors and 13 underclassmen, lost back-to-back in league to Grand View (4-1) and Portland Christian (3-1) two weeks ago. “They came out on top, but we like our chances against them in playoffs,” Waller said.
Trout Lake finished its regular season schedule last week with a 7-5 nonleague win over Horizon Christian. The Mustangs, an 11-v-11 team, played 8-v-8 against the Hawks, using the match as a tune-up for district.
Waller said five seasons ago Trout Lake had some of its most talented teams ever, but then went through “desert years” with smaller team sizes and not many upperclassmen. The Mustangs were fourth in the league a year ago.
“Going into this year, I had high hopes that we could build off of last year and have a good year — and I wasn’t disappointed,” Waller said. “We have a really talented squad that have really come together on the field to play good, unselfish soccer.”
The senior group includes Landon Heberling (captain and defender), Trevor Collins (captain and midfielder), Owen Tattersall (defender), and Tommy Goodson (forward). Junior Klayton Schmid is another captain, and juniors Jon Kendrick and Alex Lopez, as well as Dean are among the regulars for the Mustangs. Dean leads the team in scoring with 20 goals and four assists.
The defense is anchored by Heberling. “If you watch him play, seems like he is everywhere at once and hardly ever gets beaten in a one-on-one,” Waller said. “Collins does a fantastic job of dropping back to help us out and Tattersall also is a key member back there.” Eli Briolla is a first-year goalie with three shutouts to his credit.
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