Othello Soccer still in the postseason hunt
Bob Barrett/courtesy photo - Othello’s Jonathan Gutierrez boots the ball by the Ellensburg defender as the Bulldog’s goal tender looks on helplessly. The score gave the Huskies a 3-2 advantage with time winding down in the first half.
The odds are stacked against them, but the Huskies continue to defy them as the team has reeled off three straight wins to remain in contention.
Othello turned back a pesky Ellensburg squad at home April 18, picked up a 2-0 nonleague road win over Highland April19, and got past the Wolves in Wapato 1-0 Saturday.
“I am very pleased with how the team has rebounded from the mid season slump,” coach Bernie Garza said. “We have won our last three and have two game to go and we are looking to finish out strong and make the playoffs.”
Othello 1
Wapato 0
The Huskies found the going against the Wolves much harder than expect as Wapato had only one win on the season. But they managed to score the lone goal of the match to come away with the win.
“They played with a big time urgency and were very motivated as it was their senior night and they gave it their all,” Garza said. “They out shot us 11 to 10, but most of their shots went wide. Wapato played really tough defensive and it was a struggle to penetrate their positioning.”
But late in the second half the Huskies were able to get one past the Wolves keeper and then hold off Wapato in a tough physical battle.
“In the 48 minute Miguel Silva, our goalie punted, a long ball that landed close to the 18 yard box. Damon Valencia ran under it and pushed off the defender, bumped into the on rushing Wapato goalie and calmly dribbled around him as he lay on the ground with the defender and passed the ball in from 5 yards out for the game winner,” Garza said. “We had about 20 fouls called against us and two yellow cards. Wapato had about five fouls called against them and their coach got a yellow card for arguing referee calls. It was a very physical match and very evenly played considering they are at the bottom of the standings.”
Othello 2
Highland 0
The match with the Scots may have been a nonleague contest, but it was key in building momentum for the struggling Huskies. It was also an opportunity to rest the starters and see how the bench players would respond.
“I started all the non-starters for the first half and they did so well I kept them in there almost the entire second half,” Garza said. “The starters only played about 10 minutes. We out shot them 10-6 and got goals by Damon Valencia assisted by Bryan Gonzalez and Carlos Ezquivel, his first in four years, off a Sergio Mondragon assist.
Othello 3
Ellensburg 2
The Huskies win over the Bulldogs snapped a two-games skid. Othello won the coin flip and elected to go against the wind, which was out of the ordinary for the Huskies. But coach Bernie was hoping to take a first half lead and then make the Bulldogs play catch up going against the wind in the second half.
Unfortunately, the plan backfired as Othello fell behind early, and was in catch-up mode the entire first half of the match.
“They got things going with a 30 yard wind-aided blast in the first 10 minutes,” Garza said. “Then we dug ourselves a bigger hole with an own goal as they crossed a shot in front of the 6-yard box and we put it in for them.”
Down 2-0, Garza kept the squad focused by encouraging the Huskies to keep firing away at the Bulldogs box.
“Even though we were trailing we still had more possession than Ellensburg, but we just couldn’t score;” he said, “I told my players to continue taking shots and the ball would eventually go in.”
Garza’s words prove prophetic when Jonathan Gutierrez stuck twice and Othello leveled it 2-all.
“Jonathan’s first goal came off a header on a corner kick play,” Garza said. “Minutes later Jonathan scored off another corner kick on a mad scrabble for the ball from 2-yards out.”
With momentum on their side the Huskies continued their first half attack. Bernie Garza Jr. executed a nice through ball pass to Juan Tapia who out ran one defender, and made a move to get past another Bulldog leaving him one-on-one with the Tiger keeper. But he was tackled from behind and was awarded a penalty kick.
“Juan calmly scored our third goal and it turned out to be the game winner,” Garza said. “Overall I thought we played well enough to win it. We possessed the ball when needed and adjusted our lineup up to get the goals we needed as well.”
The Huskies, looking to make it four in a row, matched up with Prosser at home Tuesday but the game was still in progress when The Sun Tribune went to press. Othello closes out the regular season at Ephrata Thursday.