Ephrata wins the Battle of the Basin in a shootout

QUINCY — Ephrata senior Jirvin Espinoza took a deep breath and stared into the box during Tuesday night's CWAC shootout at Jaycee Stadium in Quincy. If he buried the shot, the Tigers would not only win the Battle of the Basin trophy, but keep pace to host a home game in the district playoffs.

Espinoza, the eighth shooter of the night, went high to his left past the outstretched hands of Quincy goalkeeper Alexis Acevedo to give the Tigers a (9-6-1, 6-3 CWAC) a 3-2 victory in a match that went two extra periods and three extra shooters before coming to a conclusion.

Both goaltenders were superb. Ephrata keeper Andres Mendoza stopped two shots. Acevedo, who moved into net for the shootout, stopped two and needed the final to keep the match alive. Acevedo tweaked something three shots into the shootout, and struggled back into net for Harley Klein's shot four shooters into it. Conference regulations stated he had to remain in the game. He did a yeoman's job, but in the end, they caught him.

“I knew he was hurt, so I went top left away from and he couldn't get there,” Espinoza said. “Bringing the trophy back to Ephrata means a lot to us. It shows all the hard work we put in to get here.”

Mendoza blocked the first shot by Chris Quintero with a sliding foot stop going low, to his right to start the shootout off on a good note. He got another one midway through and even came out of net to make one as sixth shooter when it went to extra shots.

“I tried to slow down and make my reads by how they shot during the whole game, whether they went left or right,” Mendoza said. “This means a lot. My freshman year we won the trophy and I told myself one day I was going to help get it back, and we did that tonight.”

Ephrata moved into fourth with the win. Quincy (3-11-1, 3-5) needs to win at East Valley on Friday to keep its playoff hopes alive.

“We're in sixth right now, but we need to beat East Valley,” said Quincy coach Arturo Guerrero, whose team had the tiebreaker with wins over Ellensburg and Selah. “We're still in the hunt if we take care of business.”

As for the match in regulation, Luis Rodriguez scored in the 39th minute and again on a penalty kick to tie the match 2-2 in the 72nd minute. Quincy's Danny Cruz scored twice with assists from Kevin Rios. The Tigers took eight shots on goal and the Jacks had seven.

Score by halves

• E - Luis Rodriguez, 39:10
• Q - Danny Cruz (Kevin Rios), 45:44
• Q - Danny Cruz (Kevin Rios), 63:14
• E - Luis Rodriguez, penalty kick, 72:33