Quincy holds onto the Battle of the Basin trophy, ties Ephrata 2-2

EPHRATA — The Battle of the Basin traveling trophy will stay with Quincy despite the fact Ephrata played them straight up in a 2-2 tie Tuesday evening at Ephrata.

Quincy senior Kevin Rios caught Tiger goalkeeper Andres Mendoza in no-man's land when he gathered the ball in the box, spun and fired to tie the match in the 68th minute.

“I knew he was going to go to his left, so I hit it straight,” said Rios, who had a quality shot from inside the box with under a minute remaining, but sent it wide right.

Mendoza had a solid night in net for the Tigers (1-2-1), making three saves, including a point-blank shot by Rios at 59:45. He just had to make a decision against the guy that put Quincy up by a goal with five minutes left in last year's 2A state championship game.

“He came back for the ball and I had didn't know if I should come out or not and he put it in,” said Mendoza. “We're playing better than last year right now, but we're still not up to our potential.”

The Jacks (0-3-1) have five freshmen on the roster, losing 11 seniors from last year's squad that played for a 2A state championship to graduation. Juan Borja scored in the fifth minute and Quincy grabbed the early momentum.

Ephrata junior Harley Klein scored on a header off a corner kick to tie things up in the 35th minute and Luis Rodriguez put a big left foot on the ball from 25-yards out five minutes later to give the Tigers the lead and a huge momentum boost going into the intermission.

“We started pushing the ball down our sides and hit the crosser and that's when we scored,” Mendoza said. “I thought we played well defensively. We just tried to stay tight and keep everything out in front of us.”

The key to the second half came early when Mendoza went up to defend on a corner kick and snatched the ball away from Eric Rios as the Jacks junior went up for the header at 50:40 for a great save under duress. Jack senior Alexis Acevedo went wide on a quality header off a Kevin Rios free kick midway through the second half as the Jacks pushed up.

“We're not used to being down. We scored in the first five minutes. We have momentum and we're working and then we just laid off,” Quincy coach Arturo Guerrero said. “We have five freshmen on this team and they're getting used to playing at the varsity level.”

Quincy hosts Grandview on Thursday and Ephrata hosts CWAC-leading Othello at noon on Saturday.

Score by halves

Scoring summary

• Q - Juan Borja, 5:43
• E - Harley Klein, 25: 37
• E - Luis Rodriguez, 31:30
• Q - Kevin Rios, 68:44