MONTESANO – If the Hoquiam Grizzlies boys soccer team is to reach the state playoffs, they’ll have to do so from the consolation bracket.
Hoquiam never recovered after allowing an early goal en route to being shutout by La Center 3-0 in a 1A District first-round playoff game on Thursday night at Montesano High School.
The loss puts the Grizzlies in the tournament’s consolation bracket, where they will face White Salmon in an elimination game at 1 p.m. today. The winner moves on to the state tournament as the district’s No. 3 seed. A loss would end Hoquiam’s season.
The Grizzlies (11-3 overall) sputtered offensively at the start, which allowed La Center (13-5) to take possession and field position in the early going.
The Wildcats broke through in 11th minute when Alec Watkins sent a low shot to the far post on shot that got past the out-stretched foot of Hoquiam goalkeeper Jonny Smith to give the Wildcats the early 1-0 lead.
Hoquiam head coach Fidel Sanchez said his team didn’t respond well to surrendering a goal so quickly.
“We panicked too early. Giving up that early goal was like a punch to the jaw and it kind of rattled us,” he said. “We never recovered. We played the most disorganized soccer I’ve seen in a while.”
The Grizzlies offense showed some signs of life and generated a few chances late in the first half off of a corner kick and a free kick from outside the 18-yard box, but La Center’s defense was able to clear away any danger in both cases.
La Center scored its second goal on a counter-attack rush in the 39th minute, with Hunter Leach scoring from inside the penalty area to make it a 2-0 game.
Smith and a few Hoquiam defenders thought the play might have been offside but the referee insisted that Hoquiam’s defenders were in line with Leach when the pass was made.
In the 52nd minutes, La Center worked the ball into the penalty box and, after the ball was ricocheted around, scored on a goal by Landon Martin to make it 3-0 in the second half.
Sanchez questioned the officiating on the Wildcats’ goals.
“The linesman was looking at the ball and not the player (on the second goal). By the time the player got the ball he was onside, but he was off when the pass was made. The ball was out of bounds on the third goal but they kept playing,” he said. “But, I’m not making any excuses. La Center played a really good possession style of soccer. They moved the ball well and we didn’t.”
Not only did La Center control the pitch for more than 58 minutes, they also outshot Hoquiam 14-7 to keep the Grizzlies busy in their own defensive third.
The Grizzlies had no answers for a La Center team that played disciplined defense.
Hoquiam’s leading goal-scorer, Connor Darras, was marked whenever he got near the ball in the final 40 minutes and had a hard time generating scoring chances aside from a one-on-one opportunity that resulted in a shot that went wide of the far post.
In his post-game meeting Sanchez told his players to put the game out of their minds and focus on the next one.
Sanchez hopes his team puts fourth a better effort with a trip to state on the line.
“This is not how we present soccer to our fans. I’m kind of ashamed to have a team out there too disorganized to give a better challenge,” he said. “We have to get back to work on Friday because we have a big game against White Salmon.”
