Late goal seals draw for Quincy against Overlake

QUINCY — A late Jackrabbit goal in second-half stoppage tied Friday’s non-league contest between Quincy and Overlake, which ended in a 1-1 draw.

Quincy trailed for much of the second half after Overlake netted a goal in the 35th minute, but a shot from the corner by senior Guillermo Gomez sent the game to a tie.

“We’re feeling good, we’re feeling confident,” Quincy head coach Hector Vaca said. “I think the guys are really resilient, they’ve got that grit. They’re fighters. You could see today — we’re down 1-0 on an early goal, and ended up fighting back and getting the tie.”

Following a Quincy corner kick in the 34th minute, Overlake flipped the field and quickly went on the attack against the Jackrabbit defense, scoring the first goal of the game on a shot to the left of the outstretched Quincy goalkeeper. 

Quincy was unable to respond in the final minutes of the first half, entering halftime trailing 1-0.

“They played really well in the first half, it was just an unlucky goal that caught us by surprise,” Vaca said. “(We were) Just praising them and letting them know that they were playing a good game, and to continue what they were doing.”

The Jackrabbits were limited to just one shot on the Overlake goal in the first 40 minutes Friday night. 

“The adjustments that we made — putting some guys in different positions, putting some guys up the field that needed to be up the field in the first half was the change,” Vaca said. 

Halftime adjustments allowed the offense to open up more in the second half, notably after the 55th minute.

“We were playing too slow in the first half, and it wasn’t working,” Gomez said. “We changed some things at halftime, and I think that’s what sparked it.”

Still down 1-0, Gomez stepped up to the corner on a corner kick and took a shot toward the Owl net, sneaking the ball in just past the left post to tie the match at one.

“I saw the goalkeeper off of his line a bit, and I was like, ‘I don’t get much of these,’ so I took a shot at it and thankfully it went in,” Gomez said. 

With the equalizer coming in second-half stoppage time, there wasn’t much time left on the clock for either side to score; Overlake had two shots on the Jackrabbit net before the final whistle, but the Quincy defense held firm to earn the draw.

“We knew we were the better team, and we just needed to make more passes and talk more as a team, and we could come out on top,” Gomez said. “Unfortunately that didn’t happen, but we got the draw.”

Friday’s match was the first game of the year for the Jackrabbits, who have upcoming non-league matches against Wenatchee, Ephrata and Okanogan. Quincy played Overlake — who took second at the 1A state tournament in 2023 — on the road last season.

“Trying to see how we stack up against those top teams; Overlake was a team that placed second at state last year and only lost three seniors,” Vaca said. “Last year it was kind of a game like this; we went down 2-0, came back from that and ended up scoring a super late goal with maybe 30 seconds left in the game, ended up winning it 3-2.”

Quincy kicks off on the road against Wenatchee on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

“With the amount of players that we lost last year, a lot of people were having some doubts on what the team was going to look like this year,” Vaca said. “But, I think we just proved that we can stack up against the best teams.”

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

Box score

OVR: 1-0 1
QCY: 0-1 1

   Quincy sophomore Ken Morales (9) keeps his eyes on the ball while trying to get past a pair of Overlake defenders.
  

   Quincy junior Momo Sandoval (1) blocks an Overlake shot in the first half.
  

   Quincy senior Lester Chacaj (10) tuns toward the ball against Overlake Friday night.