Bruins finish season with quarterfinal soccer loss

First-year head Coach Gio Magana-Rivera’s team won its state playoff opener, 4-1, May 17 in Bellevue against Cascade Christian of Puyallup, Wash. The CHS staff, which includes assistant coaches Brady Trullinger, Alex Gutierrez and Pavlo Stavrou, had the Bruins playing aggressive offense from the outset.

The No. 5 Bruins attacked the Cougars (11-2-1 league) from the opening whistle but were stymied by offsides calls until the 18th minute of the first half. That’s when Isaac Reynoso passed to a sprinting Angel Flores, who slammed the ball by keeper Kyle Hughes for a 1-0 CHS lead.

The Bruins defense, anchored by goalie Alfonso Serrato, Ricardo Diaz, Juan Santoyo-Luna, Alex Baldwin, Cole Wooding and Damian Sanchez, frustrated Cascade’s attackers all evening. Cougar attacker Maddox Miller scored to tie the game 1-1 early in the second half.

The Bruins responded a minute later when Luke Miller looped a pass that found Flores, who scored his second goal, which proved the game winner.

With 10 minutes to go, Flores stole the ball from a defender and shot toward the far post. The Cougar goalie made a diving save that rebounded to Reynoso for an easy tap-in. In the closing minutes, Flores dribbled down the right sideline and slotted a perfect pass to a wide-open Reynoso who scored the game’s final goal to make it 4-1.

The next day, CHS played Overlake School (10-1-1 League) in the quarterfinals. The Bruins kept pace with the Owls for the first half. Toward the end of the half, substitute Drew Case checked into the game and was unnoticed by the Bruin defense. Case received a pass at the top of the box and launched a shot past keeper Serrato.

In the second half, the game turned worse for the Bruins when Matt Miller’s injured knee and Angel Flores’ ongoing leg injury forced the pair to leave the field. Overlake advanced to the semifinals to play No. 1-seeded Cascade-Leavenworth on May 24.