The Dalles junior Pedro Ayala, in middle, tries to work the ball past Hood River Valley teammates Gio Perez and Nathan Schmidili during the second half of Tuesday’s Columbia River Conference soccer match in The Dalles. After a 6-0 loss Tuesday, the Riverhawks will prepare for a 5A state play-in soccer match against No. 5 Wilsonville. Ray Rodriguez photo
The Dalles junior Pedro Ayala, in middle, tries to work the ball past Hood River Valley teammates Gio Perez and Nathan Schmidili during the second half of Tuesday’s Columbia River Conference soccer match in The Dalles. After a 6-0 loss Tuesday, the Riverhawks will prepare for a 5A state play-in soccer match against No. 5 Wilsonville. Ray Rodriguez photo
With the regular season in the books after Tuesday’s 6-0 loss to Hood River Valley, The Dalles boys’ soccer coach Matthew Dallman is looking forward to rolling out his team for the playoffs and this weekend’s state play-in date against No. 5-ranked Wilsonville.
Dallman said all he cared about was getting through the game injury free, maintaining a good fitness level and preparing for Wilsonville.
“We are excited for our game against Wilsonville, and if we can put together a performance like we did in Hood River two weeks ago, we will be fine,” Dallman said.
In Tuesday’s matchup on senior night, Hood River Valley’s Noe Magana notched a hat trick with three goals and two assists, Jorge Campos added three assists and Saul Chavarria tacked on a goal and an assist in a 6-0 shutout win.
Campos had all three of his assists in the first half, and Magana scored two goals, including one in the 35th minute to give the Eagles a 4-0 lead at the half.
Magana completed the hat trick at the 65th minute, hauling in a pass from Chavarria and fired his shot past the Riverhawk goalkeeper.
Domingo Barragan capped the scoring with a goal in the 68th minute, off an assist from Magana.
In the past six years, the Eagles have captured league titles, and are coming off the second of back-to-back state championships.
This year, HRV is an undefeated 12-0-2 overall and won league again with a 6-0 record for its No. 1 ranking.
Even with the current winning streak, Hood River Valley coach Jaime Rivera still sees areas of improvement to hit on in the next few practices.
“We will need to continue to gain momentum by playing the ball well to our wingers and to open up spaces for our forwards to attack the goal,” Rivera said. “We will have to maintain good ball movement and our defense is going to have to lock down with no space allowed. Those are the fundamentals to being successful.”
Tuesday’s final league contest featured the celebration of Riverhawk seniors Anthony Mora, Alex Gutierrez, Alexis Lopez, Omar Rodriguez, Brandon Bustamante and Aldo Manzo.
Win or lose this weekend, Lopez feels the groundwork has been laid for future success in the Riverhawk program moving forward.
“It was emotional knowing this will be our last game. We put the emotions aside and just tried to focus on this game,” Lopez said. “I feel that the freshmen have a good amount of talent and I think it will help them out over the next three years. I believe that they will get far.”
No. 5 Wilsonville represents a big challenge for the Riverhawks in their state play-in opener this weekend.
The Wildcats lost by a 5-1 score to Hood River Valley on Sept. 15.
After a 6-0 loss to Hillsboro on Oct. 6, the state’s 10th-ranked scoring defense has shut out its last four opponents by an 18-0 margin.
On the flip side, when the Hawks score three goals or more, they have a 4-0 record, but when held to less than three tallies, they are 0-10, so executing on the offensive end is pivotal for this group.
“I feel like this team can compete and I feel like we will go out and play hard. If we play hard, I feel like we can win this game,” Bustamante said. “It is going to take everything. All the hard work that we put in and the practices must show during that game, so we are going to need to give it our all. We have to stay focused, talk and just practice hard to get ready for them.”
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