Quincy finishes second in 2A state soccer tournament

SUMNER — The Memorial Day memory they’d hoped to post in the annals of Quincy soccer history didn’t come to pass on a day where the rain came down on Sunset Chev Stadium Saturday evening in Sumner.

Jacks goalkeeper Johan Farias finally got the critical stop they needed, diving hard to his right to smother Parker Buchanan’s shot, to give Quincy a chance to tie the shootout at 4-4.

But Archbishop Murphy keeper Ryan Henderson matched Farias’ athletic prowess, diving hard to his left to punch Quincy midfielder Axel Medina’s bullet shot to the far post wide to give the Wildcats (21-1) their 20th consecutive victory and a repeat as 2A state boys soccer champions with a 2-1 victory.

As Archbishop Murphy swarmed to their keeper standing at midfield, arms curled over bulging biceps, the rain poured down hard on the heartbroken Jacks. They say it’s harder to lose with dignity than it is to win with grace, and the Jacks did both in their two-day experience at the state tournament. Quincy (16-6-3) defeated previously unbeaten Lindbergh 2-0 in the semifinals on Friday for a chance to win their second state championship in the past three years.

Kevin Rios and Danny Cruz had the goals in that one. But the Quincy team of destiny, which won a 1A title in 2014, didn’t quite get there in a run to add a 2A trophy to the mantle. “This is as close as you can get. Once you get to a shootout, it’s any body’s game,” Jacks coach Arturo Guerrero said. “That’s life and you have to move on. We played with heart.

We played with character and we showed them more class in the end.” As Guerrero spoke those words, the fans who had traveled from the Columbia Basin came down onto the field, walking across the artificial turf to where the team was gathering their gear and picking up the pieces to a shattered dream.

“We’re proud and we appreciate the people that made the sacrifice to come here,” Guerrero said. “We are a community where everybody cares.” The Jacks posed with their second-place trophy, put on a half-hearted smile. If they would have had their way, they’d of left it there on the turf.

That’s not the trophy they came to claim, but only one team can win its final game of the season, and this day it wasn’t them. But they were raised better than that. They were raised to show respect, and that’s what they did.

“We pushed ourselves to the limit today and to lose in a shootout hurts,” said Rios, who scored in the 69th minute to give Quincy the early lead. “We are brothers that love each other. I’m not upset about the loss. I’m just sad because I love playing with these guys and now it’s over.”

As they did the night before, the Jacks were the first to draw blood. Rios beat Henderson to the near post at 69.23 and the Quincy fans exploded. Murphy (21-1) came into the tournament with eight consecutive shutouts and allowed just four goals all season.

Sehome got one the night before, so Rios’ goal was just the second goal scored on Murphy since April 26. “I just wished we would’ve played harder. I felt like we played a little soft once we scored,” said Fredy Ruiz, who was one of 12 seniors playing their last game.

“Once we scored, they kept on pushing harder and that’s something we didn’t do. But this team fights and fights and there’s a lot of good teams that didn’t make it this far.” In boxing, if you’re going to win the belt, you have to knockout the champ. On a drizzly night in Sumner, the champ got up off the deck and pushed back.

Murphy attacked from the wing. The Wildcats worked the give-and-go through the middle and finally got through when Matt Williams tied the match at 1-1 with a little over nine minutes remaining. Two overtime periods later, it came down to a shootout in Sumner.

“I’m proud of my team because we worked so hard to be here,” said Francisco Alejandrez, who along with Joel Moreno, Josh Munoz, Rios and Ruiz were members of the 2014 1A state championship. “It’s a hard game. We had them, but sometimes you don’t always win those games you expect to win. We didn’t give up, it’s just soccer and we gave it our all.”

Maybe in time the Jacks will come to appreciate what they accomplished. Lindbergh hadn’t lost until it faced Quincy. The Eagles went home with a third-place trophy. Sehome’s only loss during the regular season was to Archbishop Murphy, they lost twice at the tournament.

Grandview and Toppenish didn’t even make it to Sumner, so losing in a shootout with your brothers in arms is a Memorial Day Weekend memory worth remembering.