Inland NW Soccer News: Eastern Washington HS Boys Weekly Report

Kamiakin celebrates earning the unexpected second berth to state after wins at Spokane and against rival Kennewick

State Tournament berths were on the line last week all across the Eastern side of the Cascades. This week we merge the two reports previously posted here on IWNsn with the feature contests of the week being the Greater Spokane League versus Mid-Columbia Conference regional playoff tournaments. It was quite a week with 11 of the 14 games among the INWsn coverage decided by a goal or less as numerous contests went to overtime or shootout tiebreakers.

POSTSEASON PLAY :: May 12 - 16

4A - Greater Spokane League v Mid-Columbia Conference

The week started with a pair of Tuesday contests down in the Tri-Cities.

JD Hauenstein

In the opening round game of the playoff for the second berth, the Ferris Saxons prevailed 2-1 in a shootout against Chiawana. Callan Martin scored his first goal of the year on a ball from Barrett Freshler 23 minutes in, but the hosts tied it up four minutes before the break on a penalty converted by Jose Rodriguez. Filipp Churkin made three saves for the Saxons in the tiebreaker as the shootout went eight rounds before they prevailed.

Meanwhile, the Regional Final pitted two unbeaten sides against one another. The Central Valley Bears prevailed for the second consecutive year against Pasco, but the match itself was quite a shootout, particularly in the first half. The opening period saw the two teams combine for six goals. JD Hauenstein gave the Bears the initial lead six minutes in, but Emilio Mertz-Rodriguez converted a penalty and then set up his brother Jesus for the go-ahead goal in the 18th, giving him his 18th strike of the season. Noah Whitman evened things back up for the Bears in the 26th with RJ Stretch putting the Spokane Valley side up 3-2. Hauenstein added a second in the 37th minute to push the lead to two with the insurance goal, which proved critical as Hector Magana scored his 11th of the year. Hauenstein's goal brought him to a total of 13 for the year, best among GSL teams.

The results put Ferris in a showdown against Lewis & Clark with Pasco awaiting the winner for a final shot at the second berth. Thursday's all-GSL contest saw the Tigers jump in front 16 minutes into the match when Jared Mehaffey connected with Charlie Reiger. An own goal five minutes into the second half brought things level for Ferris, but from that point neither side could find a winner, sending the game to another shootout for the Saxons. This time, though, the Saxons came up short as the Tigers moved for a trip to Pasco.

In Saturday's third round regional match, Magana tallied 17 minutes into the game to give the hosts the lead, but Chandler Goff tied things up five minutes before the break on a ball from Adam Thompson. The two sides were deadlocked until the sibling-combo struck for the 10th time this season with Emilio finding Jesus for the game-winner eight minutes from time.

Scores
Tuesday - Regional Final - Central Valley 4 :: 3 Pasco
Tuesday - Regional Playoff Rd 1 - Ferris 2 :: SO :: 1 Chiawana
Thursday - Regional Playoff Rd 2 - Ferris 1 :: SO :: 2 Lewis & Clark
Saturday - Regional Playoff Rd 3 - Lewis & Clark 1 :: 2 Pasco

State Tournament Matches
Tuesday - Mount Vernon @ Pasco
Wednesday - Davis @ Central Valley

Columbia Basin Big 9 (4A)

The opening night of the district tournament saw two completely different games. In the District Final, Wenatchee prevailed against Sunnyside for the first time on the year, taking the match in a tiebreaker after a thrilling 4-4 draw. Sunnyside took the initial lead with goals Noe Meza finding Joel Flores two minutes in and Christian Chavez tallying in the ninth. Miguel Viramontes struck in the 25th for Wenatchee, but Flores scored his second three minutes before intermission to restore the two-goal margin. After intermission, Wenatchee got a pair of quick goals to pull even with BJ Hurt finding Giovanny Soto in the 42nd and Luis Navarrette scoring a minute later. Meza got a goal himself to put Sunnyside back in front in the 67th, and they thought they were off to state when Viramontes struck in stoppage time to send the match to overtime and, ultimately, penalties.

In the opening round for the second playoff berth, Davis destroyed Eastmont in a 5-0 victory. Alex Munguia scored the first two goals with Michael Raya tallying the next three to put it out of reach. Luis Valle also had a pair of assists in the game.

In the showdown for the second berth, Davis posted another shutout win courtesy of goalkeeper Luis Birrueta, who has not allowed a goal in the postseason. After a scoreless first half, Valle netted in the 44th and then set up the second by Raul Abundiz in the 68th.

Scores
Tuesday - District Final - Sunnyside 4 :: SO :: 5 Wenatchee
Tuesday - District Rd 2 - Davis 5 :: 0 Eastmont
Friday - District Rd 3 - Davis 2 :: 0 Sunnyside

State Tournament Matches
Tuesday - Skyline @ Wenatchee
Wednesday - Davis @ Central Valley

3A - Greater Spokane League v Mid-Columbia Conference

Mt Spokane celebrates what held as winning strike

The postseason action between the two conferences at the 3A level opened up with a split on Tuesday in Spokane.

In the Regional Final, the Mt Spokane Wildcats kept their hot streak going with a 2-1 win over visiting Kennewick. Tanner McNamee put the Wildcats on the board first on a ball from Jake Morse 13 minutes into the affair. The Lions pulled even on an own goal in the 55th, but 10 minute later, however, Mikyas Noble scored his first goal of the campaign to give the hosts the regional title and a state berth.

Meanwhile, the MCC's second seed Kamiakin put forth a dominant performance against North Central with a 5-0 victory that was matched only by Davis' win in the CBB9 tournament against Eastmont the same night. Alberto Anguiano had a pair of goals, scoring the first in the 15th and the fourth goal in the 47th. Ty Wallin and Brandon Boehnke added goals for a three-score advantage at the break. The result put Kamiakin in an all-MCC match for the second state berth against rival Kennewick, which won the district playoff match the previous weekend, 1-0.

Kamiakin celebrates shootout win against Kennewick

The rematch, again, was a tight affair with the game in a scoreless stalemate all the way through overtime, where the Braves prevailed in the shootout. Goalkeeper Marco Covarrubias made seven saves for the Braves in the match, and then made two in the tiebreaker to give Kamiakin its first state berth since 2008. It also ended a three-year run of appearances at the state level for Kennewick.

Scores
Tuesday - Regional Final - Kennewick 1 :: 2 Mt Spokane
Tuesday - Regional Playoff Rd 1 - Kamiakin 5 :: 0 North Central
Saturday - Regional Playoff Rd 2 - Kamiakin 1 :: SO :: 0 Kennewick

State Tournament Matches
Tuesday - Garfield @ Mt Spokane
Tuesday - Auburn-Mountainview @ Kamiakin

Great Northern League (2A)

Greyhounds celebrate winner against Grandview

It was a couple of close calls for the regular season champion Greyhounds en route to their qualification to the state tournament. On Tuesday, they needed a shootout tiebreaker to advance against perennial power Cheney after a scoreless affair.

Then on Saturday, the regional final against Grandview looked like it was headed in the same direction when midway through the first half Mason Petrino scored just his second goal of the campaign to give the Greyhounds the deciding tally in the 63rd minute.

Scores
Tuesday - District Final - Cheney 0 :: SO :: 1 Pullman
Saturday - Regional Final - Grandview 0 :: 1 Pullman

State Tournament Match
Tuesday - Quincy @ Pullman

Nathan Reichenbach

Northeast A League (1A)

The district tournament wrapped up last week with a final four that saw just one goal in three matches. Top-seeded Colville got through its semifinal meeting with perennial power Lakeside via a shootout while Medical Lake found a game-winning goal from Dallas White just before the half-hour mark on a ball from Will Noble, edging Newport 1-0. Another shootout was on order in the district final, and Colville prevailed yet again via tiebreaker penalties after another shutout courtesy of goalkeeper Nathan Reichenbach, who posted three saves in the tiebreaker as well as scoring from the spot himself.

Scores
Tuesday - District Semifinal - Lakeside 0 :: SO :: 1 Colville
Tuesday - District Semifinal - Newport 0 :: 1 Medical Lake
Thursday - District Final - Medical Lake 0 :: SO :: 1 Colville

State Tournament Match
Tuesday - Brewster @ Colville

PHOTO GALLERIES

Tuesday - Kennewick @ Mt Spokane [+]
Thursday - Kamiakin @ North Central [+]
Saturday - Kamiakin @ Kennewick [+]

FIVE STARS - Top performers of the Week

Luis Birrueta (Davis) :: The goalkeeper kept expanded his postseason shutout streak to three games. He helped the Pirates blank Eastmont 5-0 and then shutout rival Sunnyside, which had scored four goals in the District Final and was the league's highest scoring team, for a 2-0 win and berth to state tournament.

Marco Covarrubias

Marco Covarrubias (Kamiakin) :: In a battle with rival Kennewick in the final game of the 3A playoff for the second berth to state, he made seven saves for a shutout in the scoreless stalemate, and then made two more stops in the tiebreaker. He also posted a shutout in a 5-0 win at North Central in the first round game.

JD Hauenstein (Central Valley) :: He scored two goals in 4-3 win at Pasco, netting the opening goal six minutes in and the fourth, which proved to be the game-winning strike.

Jesus Meraz-Rodriguez (Pasco) :: He scored Pasco's second goal to go in front in the Regional Final against Central Valley in what ultimately proved to be a 4-3 loss. In the final round for the second berth to state, however, he broke the 1-1 second half stalemate against Lewis & Clark with the game-winner with eight minutes left.

Nathan Reichenbach (Colville) :: He had a shutout performance in the district Final, a scoreless contest which he followed up with by making three saves and converting himself in the tiebreaker to down Medical Lake. He also recorded a shutout in a shootout win against Lakeside in the semifinal.

BONUS STARS

Filipp Churkin (Ferris) :: After a 1-1 draw, he made three saves in the shootout at Chiawana to advance Ferris to the second round of the regional playoff for the second berth to state.

Joel Flores (Sunnyside) :: He scored two goals in a 5-4 shootout loss at Wenatchee in the district final.

Luis Valle (Davis) :: He tallied two assists - on the second and third goals - in the 5-0 win at Eastmont in the second round of the playoff for the second berth to state, and then provided the opening goal and an assist in the 2-0 win at Sunnyside to earn the state berth.

Miguel Viramontes (Wenatchee) :: He scored two goals, including the critical stoppage time equalizer to make it 4-4 en route to a shootout win against Sunnyside to win the District title.