Ephrata scores two goals in two-minute span to down Mabton in non-league action

EPHRATA — Ivan Garay played for Ephrata High School back in 2003 when the Tigers had a 16-game winning streak and played with a little swag. He wants his guys to get a taste of that success, but sometimes you have rattle the cage to get the competitive juices flowing.

“You know, it doesn’t get dark for another two hours. If you don’t start doing what we’re asking we can always have practice after the game’s over,” he told his team at the intermission of Thursday’s non-league game with Mabton (2-3).

The Tigers (4-3-1) responded with two second-half goals in a two-minute span to beat the Vikings 3-1. Arbey Guerrero scored with assists by Jirvin Espinoza and Luis Rodriguez in the 68th minute to break a 1-1 tie. Two minutes later Jason Silva made it a two-goal difference with 10 minutes remaining.

It was non-league. It was spring break and at times it got more tattered around the edges than Garay would have liked, but in the end the Tigers found a way.

“I like what we do when we play our game. We move well, we defend well, but the biggest thing is can we stay focused for 80 minutes?” he said. “When we stay focused for 80 minutes, that’s the kind of game we played against Othello. We were winning every ball and we controlled the pace.”

Ephrata is coming off huge wins over Othello, beating the Huskies for the first in 12 years, and downing Ellensburg in a shootout. But Thursday’s non-league game seemed a little out of sync. They out-shot the Vikings 17-9, including the two-goal burst in the final 12 minutes. Tiger goalkeeper Andres Mendoza made four saves, giving up just the one goal when Jose Gonzalez beat him low to the far post to tie the match in the 50th minute.

“For us, if we can control all the loose balls and the energy of the game, it works in our favor,” Garay said. “But if we let the other team control the energy, it makes it difficult and that’s what I was so upset with today. You can’t control everything, but you can control the effort you put in and that’s why staying focused is so important.”

The Tigers played defensive counter the first half, focusing on the defensive end and countering with the transition at the midfield to push the ball up hard. That strategy produced a goal by Espinoza, who beat Viking goaltender Jose Camacho on a 40-yard bomb for the first score of the game.

In the second half, the Tigers switched it up, running set plays off the offensive formation, trying to use the whole field.

“That’s where those goals in the end came from, we moved the ball and came in from everywhere,” Garay said. “We want to get the ball to our midfielders, play the ball wide, and distribute from there. We did a better job of that in the second half.”

Ephrata travels to Yakima on Saturday for a key CWAC match-up with East Valley.

Score by halves

Mapton    0 1 - 1

Ephrata   1 2 - 3

E - Jirvin Espinoza, 31:40

M - Jose Gonzalez, 50:14

E - Arbey Guerrero (Luis Rodriguez, Jirvin Espinoza), 68:51

E - Jason Silva (Rodriguez), 70:01