Toppenish takes the wind out of Othello's sails with 4-1 CWAC victory
Rodney Harwood/Columbia Basin Herald Othello defender Chris Melo (2) pushes the ball up the field against Moises Mancillas (15) of Toppenish in the first half of Tuesday's CWAC boys soccer match at Huskie Stadium.
Rodney Harwood/Columbia Basin HeraldOthello midfielder Bernie Garza Jr. goes against Cristobal Cervantes (9) of Toppenish during the second half of their CWAC match at Huskies Stadium.
OTHELLO — There was plenty of wind, it’s just that Toppenish freshman Rivaldo Ceja’s goal three minutes into the second half took it all out of the Othello sails and the Wildcats handed the Huskies their first loss of the season Tuesday night at Huskies Stadium.
Othello gave up a penalty kick and an own goal in the first half, but managed to trail by just 2-1 at the intermission. But the Toppenish freshman came in off the right wing and fired a ball, low to the far post to get it by a diving Miguel Silva and the Wildcats (7-1, 1-0 CWAC) rolled to a 4-1 victory.
For the Huskies (5-1-1), it was their first loss of the season, coming off a tie with Lakeside and a shutout over Ephrata last week.
“I thought we were in it first half, even with the own goal,” Othello coach Bernie Garza said. “Then we just kind of let them get that ball to the corner. We know exactly what they’re going to do, but they move inside and they’re not going to miss from that range. When it went to 3-1, I thought it took the wind out of our sails.”
The Huskies scored four goals against Ephrata and five against Wapato earlier in the season, so they can put up the numbers. But they went into the match averaging just 2.6 goals and couldn’t find a way to take it up another level to press the Wildcat defense.
Othello senior Juan Tapia beat Wildcat goalkeeper Alex Villalfan low, to the near post to tie the match at 1-1 with 9:46 remaining in the first half, but that was the extent of the Huskies scoring.
“I thought we had good energy tonight. We came out of the break with the mindset we were going to come back. But when they scored right away, that slowed us some in the second half,” Tapia said. “We have a lot of veteran players from last year. We’ll be OK, we just need to do a better job finishing.”
Wildcats senior Cristobal Cervantez gave Toppenish the early lead on a penalty kick from 25 yards out, hammering a high ball into a gusting wind that slipped in under the elbow. Cervantez was credited with the go-ahead goal at 15:11, but in actuality, it hit the heel of a defender and went in and the Wildcats regained the lead.
Cervantez was trigger man in an explosive Toppenish, but the Huskies did a good job marking him in the second half. But Ceja’s goal minutes into the second half put the Huskies, who were going against the wind, on their heels.
“They capitalized on their opportunities. (Cervantez) was good, but they did a good job spreading the ball around,” Tapia said.
Toppenish took three more shots than Othello, 18-15. Silva had eight saves for the Huskies and Villalfan finished with seven for the Wildcats.
Diego Martinez slammed the door with a goal with 20 minutes remaining and Toppenish won its first CWAC match of the season on the road.
“We just have to clean some things up and we’ll be fine,” Garza said. “It’s just they finished tonight and we didn’t.”
Othello hosts Grandview on Thursday, then travels to Yakima to face East Valley on Saturday.
Toppenish 2 2 - 4
Othello 1 0 - 1
Shots on goal: Toppenish 18, Othello 15. Saves: Villalfan (T) 7, Silva (O) 8.