HOOD RIVER — The momentum of a Northwest Oregon Conference win streak has proven to be a recipe for success for the Hood River Valley High playoff-bound girls soccer team.
The win streak helped propel the Eagles into the 16-team OSAA Class 5A state playoffs for a second consecutive year; they’ll play a first-round contest Nov. 4.
The No. 11-ranked Eagles (5-2 NWOC, 9-4-1 overall), notched two wins last week, extending their win streak to four and putting them in a third-place tie in the nine-team league standings with ninth-ranked Putnam (5-2 NWOC, 7-5-1 overall).
The Eagles, guided by first-year Coach Kevin Haspela, won two close matches, including a 1-0 road win Oct. 21 over the No. 10-ranked Canby High Cougars (3-4 NWOC, 7-7 overall). Sophomore forward Josie Faaborg scored the lone goal in the fourth minute. Eagle senior goalkeeper Valeria Miramontes-Alvarez had eight saves for the Eagles, who have six shutouts this fall.
Haspela said: “We’ve had a good couple of weeks with the win streak. One of our goals this year was to qualify for the playoffs, so this is a big step up for us. The girls have really stepped up, and they’ve played very well recently. Josie has been really hot, and she’s been scoring a lot of goals, which is just fantastic. Valeria has also been playing great in helping us continue to win games.”
Faaborg, who scored six goals in the four-game win streak, also scored the game-winning goal in a 1-0 home win Oct. 14 vs. Centennial (1-5-1 NWOC, 4-7-2 overall). Faaborg had a hat trick (three goals) in a 4-0 road win Oct. 16 vs. Parkrose (1-5-1 NWOC, 2-9-1 overall) in Portland.
The No. 11-ranked Eagles followed with a 3-1 home win on Oct. 23 vs. Hillsboro (3-4 NWOC, 3-10 overall). The Spartans, who led 1-0 at halftime, had a three-game win streak snapped.
“Before the game, I tried to motivate the team by telling them that we just need to stick to our game plan and I also told them that we have not beaten Hillsboro since 2017,” said Haspela. “Hillsboro was playing well and so we knew it was going to be a good game. We dominated the second half … that was really great to see how well the girls responded and it was fun to see that.”
The Eagles play their regular season finale Oct. 28 at home versus Milwaukie (0-7 NWOC, 4-9 overall) prior to their Nov. 4 first-round playoff game.
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