Ephrata comes alive against Medical Lake

Score three unanswered goals in the second half

After two straight losses heading into the state tournament, Ephrata was back in form.

The Tigers' soccer team took a little while to get the ball rolling, but outshot Medical Lake in a 4-1 win in the first round of the 2A state high school soccer tournament. Kellan Mathis became a brick wall in the second half, shutting out the Cardinals in the win.

"I will also say that playing on the road on a field that is this quick, it is different," Ephrata head coach Ken Murray said.

A shortened field and a sandy goal box put the Tigers to a test of adapting and pursuing a fast ball, but Murray credited his defensive backfield in allowing one goal on three attempts.

Led by Gavyn Sherwood, Roberto Farias, Tyler Wanke and Juan Farias, Medical Lake never had an opportunity to use their heavily favored home field advantage. Especially when the Cardinals loaded the offensive attack and put pressure on the defensive four and the goal keeper Mathis in the second half.

"Defensively, we really improved and that was the difference," Murray said. "Medical Lake realized they needed to put more guys into the attack and that opened up the midfield and that is when we started counter-attacking against them."

The Tigers got a feel for the field in the second half and began its scoring pursuit, firing three unanswered goals at the Cardinal box and allowing only two shots at Mathis during the final 40 minutes.

"Really, it was just more of a change in the head and we knew what we need to do and not play with a nervous energy," Murray added.

Medical Lake opened the first round game with a two quick shots from corner kicks at the Ephrata goal, but came up empty each time. Sherwood answered for the Tigers with a shot over the crossbar and Frankie Navarro missed wide with a cross-field kick past Medical Lake's goal keeper Derek Ristau.

Navarro was given another opportunity a few minutes later and missed wide and high at an empty goal box.

"In the first half, we gave up a lot of opportunities that we normally don't and cracked down in the second half and did a better job," Murray said.

Edgar Pichardo broke up the scoreless game with a goal in the 17th minute of play. Pichardo fired again at Ristau, but came up empty.

Felipe Fagundes took a loose ball at the top of the key and fired at the the Ephrata goal with the ball trailing away from an outstretched Mathis and into the back of the net, putting the Cardinals on the board and tying the game up a 1-1.

"He told me he could have saved that, but he couldn't plant," Murray said, noting the sandy goal box Ephrata started the game in.

The first half ended in a tie, a switch in sides of the field and some advice from Mathis to his players.

"He said we should start firing shots at that goalkeeper because he was going to have a hard time getting planted," Murray said.

Mauro Chavez found the back of the net 11 minutes into the second half with a shot across the left side of the field. Pichardo added another goal for the Tigers in the 67th minute on a penalty kick, awarded to Ephrata after the Cardinals' keeper Ristau made a tackle on Chavez inside the goal box.

Kai Hirz finished the game off with a shot from the top of the box on an assist from Pichardo to end the game at a 4-1 win.

The win ended a two-game skid by the Tigers, falling 2-1 against eventual CWAC district champion Connell and then to Wahluke for seeding into the state tournament.

"I went into those two games against Connell and Wahluke pretty confident, but I was also pretty confident coming out of them," Murray said.

Ephrata faces the winner of Riverside and East Valley at Ephrata on Friday or Saturday in quarterfinals action.