WHITE SALMON — With the regular season winding down, the Columbia High Bruins are hoping they’ll get a couple more wins to help them qualify for the upcoming WIAA Class 1A girls soccer District 4 Tournament.
The Bruins (4-6-1 league, 5-6-1 overall) had a late season slump with losses in three of their past four games. That dropped them into fifth place in the eight-team league standings. The Fort Vancouver High Trappers (4-6-2 league, 4-7-3 overall) are in sixth place.
The top five teams qualify for the district playoffs. The Bruins have a slim advantage in the WIAA rankings at the No. 32 position, while the Trappers are ranked No. 38.
The Bruins had three Trico League games in five days. The Bruins, guided by first-year Coach Miguel Ramirez, lost 1-0 to the King’s Way Christian High Knights (7-4-1 league, 8-4-1 overall) on Oct. 13 in Vancouver. The Bruins lost Oct. 15 at home, 1-0, to the Kalama High Chinooks (8-2-2 league, 9-2-3 overall). The Bruins regained their momentum with an 8-0 road win at Stevenson (0-9-2 league, 0-10-3 overall) on Oct. 17.
Ramirez said: “The close loss to Kalama actually felt pretty good, considering that we lost to them 7-1 the last time we played them (Sept. 24). For me, it kind of felt like a moral victory and I was proud of the girls, because it wasn’t a bad loss at all.”
Senior forward Willow Cohen scored a career high four goals to help lead the Bruins to the win over Stevenson. Cohen leads the Bruins in scoring with 25 goals. Yazmin Rico Huerta, an eighth grader from White Salmon, was the Bruins’ goalkeeper and she helped lead the Bruins to their fifth shutout this season.
“Yazmine and Willow both played a great game against Stevenson,” said Ramirez. “We gave Yazmine an opportunity to play … and it really helped build up her confidence level. We’re going to lose our starting goalkeeper senior Kiki Barkhimer after the season, so it was good to let Yazmine gain some experience in the goal.”
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