Ephrata soccer advances closer to state berth

EPHRATA — The Ephrata Tigers were playing for their playoff lives Thursday night and it showed.

The Tigers started strong and never let up in their loser-out boys soccer playoff game with visiting Othello, hammering the visiting Huskies 3-0. The victory moves Ephrata into a winner-to-state game Saturday afternoon at home against Prosser, which upset Quincy 1-0 on Thursday.

Ephrata, the second seed out of the Central Washington Athletic Conference's North Division, has an opportunity Saturday to clinch the league's No. 3 seed to next week's 2A state playoffs. The Tigers earned that right through possession-oriented offense and a defense that never let Othello's best dribblers weave their way through traffic.

Tiger coach Jennifer Lee was nothing short of ecstatic afterward, saying her team bounced back well after a difficult loss Tuesday at East Valley-Yakima.

"It's always hard playing East Valley down there on that field," Lee said, adding that her team regained focus very well for Thursday's match. "They've had the mentality from the very beginning that they were going to win this thing."

Lee worked her players to the bone in Wednesday's practice, but the only ones showing fatigue were the Huskies, the North's third seed. Except for a few counterattacks mustered by Othello forwards Jorge Aranzazu and B.G. Guzman, the first-half possession was constantly at Ephrata's offensive end of the pitch.

Lee felt her team's attack had a lot to do with the play of senior midfielder Michele Vigano, who was missing from the lineup the last time the teams met. Vigano was the key to Ephrata being able to build its attack through the center of the field.

"We had him today and he played great today and that really made a huge difference with our flow," Lee said of Vigano's play.

The Tigers nearly scored in the first four minutes, missing one shot just wide and having another ball glance off the crossbar following a corner kick. Othello answered over the next 10 minutes, using long passes to attack and force Ephrata goalkeeper Jaymes Kirkham to come off his line and corral loose balls.

But Ephrata kept its cool and struck in the 25th minute. Junior forward Marco Farias set up the play with a left-footed blast from 18 yards out. Othello keeper Michael Morelos made a diving save but couldn't control the rebound. That allowed an unmarked Ryan Hoskins to zip toward goal and bury his shot in the empty net.

Ephrata continued owning the attack for the rest of the half, and Farias nearly made it 2-0 in the 35th minute as he juked a defender at the top of the penalty box and booted one just wide to the near post. The Huskies missed a good opportunity to tie in stoppage time as Guzman's cross to the top of the box found Jose Ballardo's foot, but the junior shot high.

Both teams showed flashes of physicality throughout the contest, with Ephrata's Kort Laughlin coming off in the first half limping and Othello's Hector Alvares doing likewise in the second stanza.

Othello's second-half attack relied mainly on Alvarez, who nearly set up a few chances through his dribbling ability alone. But two or three Tiger defenders were there to hound Alvares at every turn.

"The game plan was a lot of high pressure," Lee said of her defense. "We also wanted to maintain depth because they have a lot of good dribblers."

Farias finally made good on one of his numerous runs, scoring in the 59th minute off a long breakaway pass. Morelos raced out to intercept the loose ball, but Farias beat him to it and slid it home.

The capper came in the final two minutes of regulation when Tiger sophomore Eric Hensley executed a nice give-and-go and beat Morelos with a shot to the upper corner.

With Prosser on deck for Saturday, Lee knows her team will have to be well-prepared and ready to match the Mustangs' high levels of energy and emotion. Ephrata beat Prosser in an earlier meeting, but the stakes this time around are much higher.