Gonzalez’s late goal propels Othello over Selah

OTHELLO — A late goal broke a 1-1 tie between Othello and Selah in Saturday’s Central Washington Athletic Conference match, giving the Huskies a 2-1 win to improve to 4-1 in league games this spring.

Othello junior Danny Gonzalez scored what eventually was the game-deciding goal in the 68th minute.

“I just saw that the ball was coming toward me — my teammate got the pass to me, I shot it and it went in,” Gonzalez said.

The Huskie defensive unit limited the Vikings to three shots on the Othello net during the game and held on to stop a Selah equalizer. 

“When you play bad and you still win, that shows the quality of the team that we have,” Othello head coach Bernie Garza said. “The defense keeps you in the game, and eventually we’ll get that goal.”

Saturday’s match opened up with an Othello goal in the second minute, where senior Anthony Abundiz found the back of the net to put the Huskies up 1-0.

“I just saw the ball come at me, and I shot it and it went in,” Abundiz said. “It was really important (to score early) even though they ended up tying it, that still gave us a push to keep going.”

While Othello got plenty of shots off throughout the first half, they were unsuccessful in converting them into goals.

“We could have been up 4-0 — we had one go off the post, we had one where the goalie was not even in the box — we just missed those opportunities, and then we relaxed and went flat,” Garza said. “They were too relaxed. The early goal is a positive and a negative because you’re thinking you’re going to roll this team over, and it came back to haunt us.”

Selah tied the match at one in the 37th minute, where Viking senior Miles Case was found on a cross in front of the Othello net.

With the Vikings scoring just before the half, Garza said the team’s halftime discussion was about bringing the energy.

“(Selah) doesn’t have a go-to guy, but they have good team chemistry,” Garza said. “I told the guys, ‘You’ve got to have more energy and be first to the ball.’”

Othello continued to shoot the ball in the second half, recording seven shots on the Selah net, and finally got one through on Gonzalez’s goal.

“We had took shots, we just couldn’t get going,” Garza said. “We took advantage of an opportunity at the end to win the game — it wasn’t a lucky shot because we took the shot, but we took advantage of the opportunity. We were in front of the goal, we took a shot, rebound and it went in.”

With the win, Othello improved to 5-3-1 overall and 4-1 in the CWAC. Up next for the Huskies is a road match against Ephrata on Tuesday.

“We felt confident, but we could have done better on finishing on goals,” Gonzalez said. “The important thing is that we won, came out with the win. We fought hard to get that last goal.”

Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.

Box score

SEL: 1-0 1
OTH: 1-1 2

    Othello junior Ruben Mancilla brings the ball upfield against Selah on Saturday.
  

    In the first half, Othello junior Asaph Alfaro Vazquez brings the ball up the field on a Huskie attack.