The Dalles United girls’ soccer team locked down third place at the 400-team Mount Hood Challenge from Aug. 3-5 in West Linn and Lake Oswego. In the photo are, from left to right, starting in the back row, Willow Cohen, head coach Oscar Nunez, Lilyana Gonzalez, Georgia Haynie, Sydney Newby, Paola Elias-Contreras, Natalie Elias-Contreras, Riley Wilcox and Ariana Gonzalez. In the middle row are, from left, Stella Lujan, Skylar Vaivoda-Kerr, Kiera Taylor, Bryce Newby and Kate Radford. In the front row is Olivia Prado. Not pictured: Yaritza Torres.
The Dalles United girls’ soccer team locked down third place at the 400-team Mount Hood Challenge from Aug. 3-5 in West Linn and Lake Oswego. In the photo are, from left to right, starting in the back row, Willow Cohen, head coach Oscar Nunez, Lilyana Gonzalez, Georgia Haynie, Sydney Newby, Paola Elias-Contreras, Natalie Elias-Contreras, Riley Wilcox and Ariana Gonzalez. In the middle row are, from left, Stella Lujan, Skylar Vaivoda-Kerr, Kiera Taylor, Bryce Newby and Kate Radford. In the front row is Olivia Prado. Not pictured: Yaritza Torres.
Following two straight losses, The Dalles United girls’ soccer team finished off tournament play with back-to-back wins by a combined 10-0 margin for third place in 11U Silver Division action at the Mount Hood Challenge ending Aug. 5.
Coach Oscar Nunez fielded his group for three days of tough competition in an event that featured more than 400 teams.
In Friday’s opening round, the United lost a nip-and-tuck 1-0 matchup versus the eventual tournament champion, Portland City United.
Saturday, the offense showed a little more consistency against the Westside Timbers, from Tualatin/Sherwood, but the United fell behind 4-0 through one half, until rallying with three straight goals to creep to within a 4-3 deficit at one point.
Tualatin/Sherwood added a late insurance marker down the stretch to hold on to their 5-3 win.
“The second game was hard, because we started off really strong, but a couple of offside goals really took the wind out of our sails,” Nunez said. “After our halftime pep talk, we put that behind us and came out strong.”
Now with an 0-2 record, the United were thrust into must-win games for the rest of the weekend.
The second-half scoring surge versus Tualatin/Sherwood appeared to be the springboard to shake off the cobwebs, as the United wrapped up Saturday with an 8-0 victory over the Eugene Timbers.
That win left the door open for a possible finals berth, where the United needed to stay on a winning track in Sunday’s finale with some help from other teams in their bracket.
Early Sunday morning, the United took care of their part of the deal with a 2-0 win against the Washington Timbers.
Portland City United, however, advanced to the championship after a 4-0 win versus Indie Chicas Fujieda, and WT 08G Samba TS cruised 9-0 over ETFC Sunderland Red to make its move to the title match.
Portland wound up winning its last game by a 3-0 margin to take hold of first place.
“We finished third for the second year in a row and we looked really good the second half of the tournament,” Nunez said.
On the United were Skylar Vaivoda-Kerr, Riley Wilcox, Sydney Newby, Paola Elias-Contreras and Ariana Gonzalez.
Joining that core were Kiera Taylor, Bryce Newby, Willow Cohen, Lilyana Gonzalez, Georgia Haynie, Natalie Elias-Contreras, Stella Lujan, Kate Radford, Olivia Prado and Yaritza Torres.
Nunez announced daily double practices for The Dalles High School team.
Next week, from Aug. 13-17, the players have their first session from 6-8:15 a.m. and then wrap up practice at 6 p.m. until 8:15 p.m.
“I’m very excited about this season,” Nunez said. “We have 55 girls out and I believe this is the first time that TDHS will have three soccer teams, boys or girls. This will be huge for our program, because we can develop players at three different levels. This, along with the competitive youth program taking off, will get TD recognized for the great teams and players we have always had.”
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