Eagle boys soccer grabs another shutout with defeat of Central Catholic

“We controlled most of the match; we kept possession longer than they did,” he said. “(The Rams) were playing for the counterattack and waiting for a miscue.”

Rivera said that Central Catholic’s strategy “did not work at all,” thanks to some good defending.

“Not only is our (defense’s) back line doing well, but our two center midfielders are doing a good job of filtering the attack,” he noted.

For a game that HRV dominated, it wasn’t until the 76th minute that the Eagles found their first goal, courtesy of forward Noe Magaña, assisted by winger Jorge Campos, whom Rivera said he “just pulled up from JV” for the match. Magaña scored the goal after turning on one defender and then taking on another for a 1-v-1 situation that ended in Magaña’s favor.

The goal lit a fire under the Rams, who “pressed us for a couple minutes,” and resulted in some close calls, including a Central Catholic corner kick that required HRV to scramble and clear the ball, as well a point-blank shot on goal that was successfully blocked by senior goalkeeper and captain Marcos Cuevas, who had six saves on the evening.

Despite the flurry of activity from the Rams, the Eagles followed up with another goal just three minutes after scoring their first goal of the match. After Central Catholic’s defense muffed a chance at clearing a cross sent by Magaña from the right side of the field, forward Andres Baeza — who has scored in just about every game HRV has had this season — made the Rams pay by burying a shot into the back of their net to make it 2-0.

Tuesday’s result gave HRV a 4-0-1 record and marked the third time the Eagles have gotten a shutout this season (the others were a 4-0 decision at Franklin High School on Sept. 3 and a 3-0 win over Rex Putnam a week later). With the win over Central Catholic, HRV currently sits in the No. 2 position in the 5A boys soccer rankings, just behind Wilsonville (4-0) and just ahead of Columbia River Conference opponent Hermiston 4-1).

HRV was scheduled to play at Summit on Friday at 4 p.m. (results not available by deadline) and then return to Hood River Tuesday for a 6:30 p.m. game against Woodburn that will be played at Henderson Community Stadium.