Quincy soccer aiming for consistency, continued wins

QUINCY - The Quincy High School boys soccer team are on a roll to punch their ticket to the state tournament as they complete their final matchups of the season.

“Once these boys actually just settle down and find their rhythm, their passing and build a play can just be so impressive,” said Head Coach Francisco Tafoya. “And that was the situation against Cashmere (April 14) and that's why you see that scoreline of eight to zero because we were just connecting and the vibe was just amazing.”

Their overall record is 9-3 and 5-1 in their conference. Their only league loss was to Cascade 4-3 on April 12. This puts the Jacks at No. 2 in the Caribou Trail League, just behind Cascade who is undefeated in the league.

Tafoya said his team’s biggest struggle has been to be consistent. He explained that sometimes they are firing on all cylinders right from the jump while other times, they seem slow to get going. He hopes they can find consistency so the athletes don't get discouraged, impatient or struggle with the path of the game.

Earlier this season, Tafoya said his team struggled to play together as a cohesive team but said that has since changed.

“Yeah, I mean, I think they're finally starting to click. It shows when we have moments during the game where it's hard for the other team to even take the ball away from us,” said Tafoya.

The coach highlighted his three captains; seniors Israel Perez and Ernesto Nunez alongside junior Jorge Nunez.

“I would say our three captains have really taken on that role and have just been phenomenal on that aspect of actually becoming leaders and motivating the guys,” Tafoya said.

The Jacks next take on Kamiak High School on this afternoon at Kamiak. The team has three final games after that against Glacier Peak High School, Omak High School and Cascade High School.

Tafoya said his team is looking forward to the matchup against Cascade again on April 28. He said he thinks there is a really good chance his team could upset Cascade and pay them back for a league loss earlier this year.

As for districts, the CTL and Central Washington B League are combining competition for districts. The top two for each league are automatically seeded to the second round of the district tournament and only four teams between the 10 going to districts will move on to the state tournament.

The preliminary district bracket, as long as Quincy stays No. 2 in the CTL, has them matched up on May 11 to play the CWB No. 1 ranked team. If they win that game, they go into the district playoff where the winner and loser both go on to the state tournament.

Rebecca Pettingill may be reached at rpettingill@columbiabasinherald.com. In addition to sports, Pettingill covers the cities of Soap Lake and Coulee City.