Early barrage enough for Huskies in win

OTHELLO — For 70 minutes the underdog Ephrata Tigers soccer team had the upper hand against their hosts the Othello Huskies.

Unfortunately for the Tigers the first 10 minutes belonged to Othello and that was enough for the Huskies in a 5-3 Central Washington Athletic Conference (CWAC) win on Tuesday.

Othello exploded to a 3-0 lead in the first 600 seconds behind two goals from Enrique Romero and one off of the foot of Romero Alvarez.

“Take the first 10 minutes of the match and we beat them,” Ephrata coach Keith Laughlin said. “In the first 10 minutes they were up 3-0 and the guys fell behind early they actually played pretty well. They were creating a lot for themselves and played with a lot of heart and won the second half again.”

Ramon Sanchez scored for Ephrata off of a first half penalty kick.

But then Othello countered with a penalty opportunity of their own and B.G. Guzman put away the spot kick for a 4-1 halftime lead.

Othello knocked in an own-goal early in the second half to bring Ephrata back within 4-2.

The Huskies wrapped up their scoring in the 52nd minute off of a Jorge Campos tally.

The Tigers (5-10. 4-9)scored the final goal of the game when Curtis Slade popped in a short corner service from Sanchez in the 82nd minute but couldn’t cut the gap any further.

“These guys are really coming together and playing good, pretty soccer,” Laughlin said. “They will win if they continue to work.”

Othello secured a district playoff spot with the win while Ephrata hopes to stay one spot above Ellensburg in the CWAC North standings to advance into post season.

Warden 2, Royal 1 (SO)

ROYAL CITY — Role reversal was the theme of the evening when Warden traveled to Royal last night.

Warden, having lost 1-0 at home against the Knights just a little over two weeks ago found a way to return the favor in a shootout victory on Tuesday and creep back into the South Central Athletic Conference district playoff race.

Warden (6-4, 3-3) won 6-5 in the shootout after both teams were tied at 1-1 going into the intermission.

“Finally we showed the eye of the tiger and the desire to win and came out with the win,” Warden coach Ed Aguilar said. “To beat those guys in their house and hopefully we can keep that momentum for Connell.”

Warden scored first off of a Royal own goal but the Knights came back to level the contest on a Jesus Ceja stroke off of a header into the back post.

The teams battled it out into overtime and Royal pushed the tempo while Warden missed some scoring opportunities.

“We started pushing players forward to find the winner and that left us open at the back providing Warden with a pair of good chances,” Royal coach Jens Jensen said.

Royal however fought back and earned a late penalty kick in the overtime when a Warden player handled the ball inside the 18-yard box but Cougars goalie Martin Aguilar made the save.

In the shootout both teams pounded home their first five kicks before Warden broke through and Royal missed on the sixth and final kick.

Royal outshot Warden 19-12 in the game.

“Right now we are in good shape,” Ed Aguilar said. “We need to beat Connell on Thursday and with that we might be in the playoffs or may still have to win a few games. Everything is so close and you don’t know who’s going to take it.”

Quincy 2, Selah 0

QUINCY — Back where they belong the Quincy Jacks reclaimed its place at the top of the CWAC once again.

With their 2-0 win over Selah last night the Jacks (13-0, 10-0) clinched their sixth league title in the last 11 seasons and now will ready themselves for postseason.

A Pedro Nunez goal in the 32nd minute off of an Eduardo Perez assist made the score 1-0 at halftime.

Efrain Alvarado’s 60th minute unassisted score off of a deflected shot off of Selah goaltender cemented the win.

It was the Jacks’ second lower-scoring type game after a run of high-goal contests.

“We have grinded it out the last two games and its been really nice,” Quincy coach Tom Turner said. 

Quincy outshot Selah 13-7 and goaltender Cody Beaumont recorded his fourth clean sheet for the Jacks.

“Number one we had to build back Cody’s confidence since we had been giving away some easy goals,” Turner said. “But the last few weeks he’s been doing what he has to do and get team confidence back on that side of the ball.”

Quincy, which last won the CWAC in 2008 now will aim for consistent play as they near the Class 2A postseason.

“We’re just taking them one day at a time,” Turner said. “We got Othello next and we just hope to get out of there with no injuries. If this team knows how to play the way it knows how, we could go until the end of May but I don’t want to extend them too much. It’s a special team.”