Staff report
Columbia Gorge News
HOOD RIVER — Two schools synonymous with boys soccer success met up in the first round of the OSAA Class 5A state playoffs Nov. 3, when two-time defending 5A champion La Salle Prep beat Hood River Valley, 4-0.
The Falcons scored twice in each half to beat HRV in Milwaukie, ending the Eagles’ season. The seventh-seeded Falcons (10-5-1) limited HRV’s offensive chances with a stingy defense and physical play on a crisp fall night. The two schools — with six boys state soccer titles between them since 2014 — are familiar with postseason play.
Tenth-seeded Hood River (8-6-2) has qualified for the playoffs four straight years and in all but one season that postseason play has been held since 2026. La Salle has failed to qualify for the state soccer playoffs only once (in 2010 as a 4A school) in the past 20 years.
The programs had to face off in the first round for the second time in the past three years, in part because both are known for loading up their nonleague schedules with the toughest competition (usually a few matches vs. 6A schools). That can lead to losses and subsequently result in a lower ranking in the OSAA’s system.
Based on season-ending rankings, Hood River and La Salle should not have had to play each other in the eight-game first round. But one playoff stipulation grants a home game to all district or league champions. Eugene’s Willamette High won its league and was moved up from the 12th ranking to the eight seed so the Wolverines could play a home game. That bumped Silverton from eighth to ninth, and HRV from ninth to 10th — and into a bracket spot opposite No. 7 La Salle.
HRV finished behind two-time defending league champion Centennial and Parkrose in the eight-team Northwest Oregon Conference with a 3-1-2 record. La Salle was the champion of the Greater Metro Conference.
The Nov. 3 showdown was closer than the final score indicates. It was a 1-0 game until a second remained in the first half. That’s when La Salle’s Owen Hulme got loose on the right side of the HRV goal and converted a deflected ball into a 2-0 Falcon halftime lead as time expired. HRV’s Cesar Flores headed away the initial midfield free kick from in front his goal, but Hulme slipped away from his defender and one-touched a hard, right-footed shot from 10 yards away into the left side of the net.
La Salle took its initial lead 27 minutes into the match on a free kick play that HRV initially defended. The kick came to the left side of the goal — about 15 yards out — from straight on. HRV’s Owen Dell headed the ball — seemingly out of harms’ way — but La Salle’s Beck Bartley beat two Eagles to the rebound and tapped the ball ahead to Henry Roy.
Roy controlled the ball with his left foot, then, off one bounce, kicked a pedestrian-looking angle shot from left to right. The well-placed ball bounced across in front of the HRV goal and inside the right goalpost into the right side of the net.
Coach Alvaro Lara’s HRV team pressed forward in the second half to create a few more scoring chances. But La Salle twice countered the aggressive play with transition goals. La Salle, which also won 3-0 over HRV on Sept. 17, clinched the win with those two Tim Scherler goals within a two-minute span midway through the second half.
The Dalles falls to Phoenix
Less than two minutes remained when James Dawson ran onto a through ball from Zahir Mendoza, tapped it forward to get clear of two defenders, and then finished the play with a goal to give visiting Phoenix a 2-1 win at The Dalles in the first round of the 4A playoffs on Nov. 3.
Ten minutes earlier, Julian Rodriguez scored on a free kick from 20 meters out to tie the match, 1-1. Other than the long free kick goal, The Dalles could not crack Phoenix keeper Ivan Morales, who made numerous saves.
Like The Dalles, Phoenix (6-4-4) has been a boys soccer playoff mainstay of late. The Pirates missed the playoffs in 2023, but other than that hiccup, they have made it to state every season since 2018.
The Dalles finished its season at 12-3-1 under first-year head Coach Shudi Datta, who led the Riverhawks to the Tri-Valley Conference title – the second straight for the school.
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