By Mike Weber
For Columbia Gorge News
HOOD RIVER — The No. 11-ranked Hood River Valley High Eagles have enjoyed a great start to their OSAA Class 5A girls soccer schedule as they’ve won three of four non-league games.
The Eagles (3-1), guided by second-year Coach Kevin Haspela, won their last home game Sept. 10, 4-3, over the Caldera High Wolfpack (1-2), a 2025 state playoff squad. The contest was knotted 3-3 at halftime.
Sophomore midfielder Ellie Kinsfogel scored the game-winning goal midway through the second half to help lead the Eagles to the win. Freshman forward, Sophie Romero scored two goals; junior goalkeeper Uma Carosella helped spearhead the Eagles’ solid defense with 10 saves.
“We have some young [four freshmen] and talented players on the team,” Haspela said.
The Eagles started the 2026 season Sept. 1 with a 3-0 home win over Ridgeview; lost, 2-1, at Mountain View, a 2025 state playoff squad; then bounced back to win, 5-0, Sept. 8 over visiting Canby. The Eagles displayed a balanced offense against Canby, as five players scored goals against the Cougars.
“It sure has been an exciting couple of weeks here for us at the beginning of the season,” said Haspela. “The win over Caldera was pretty special because they beat us two years ago 6-0 in the state playoffs, so it felt a lot different for us and it was great to get the win. We played great defense in the second half to hold them [Wolfpack] scoreless and so that was very exciting to pull out the win.”
The Eagles have another solid team again this year, with leadership qualities provided by the senior duo of Ainsley Chown and Keira Brennan. The Eagles are hoping to reach the state playoffs for a third consecutive season.
“I’ve been really impressed by the team’s ability to battle and get back into games,” said Haspela, HRV’s girls coach from 2010-2018. “We had two big wins last week, including the win over Canby.”
The Eagles have scored 13 goals in four games. Romero, juniors Josie Faaborg, Cate Haspela and Kinsfogel, each scored two goals through the first four games.
“It’s nice to know that these girls are capable of finding the back of the net,” said Haspela. “I am very proud of the team and they’re such a very special group of kids. … They have learned that we can play really well when we all play together and we have lots of good, talented players.
“The tryouts we had this year included what was probably the biggest group ever in school history with a total of 55 kids for our three teams (varsity, junior varsity, JV2). Participation in the program is really high now, which is really exciting and it’s very encouraging for the school.”
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