Emotional Season Ends in Overtime

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S Vawter Photo

The varsity team huddles up before their home game.

The Boys Soccer team had a very successful season this year finishing 8-5-2 (5-1-1 in conference play). Unfortunately, the team lost to the Newberg Tigers 2-1 in the first round of the playoffs in a game that went to double overtime. The Tigers struck first scoring an early goal in the second overtime, and quickly scored another right after that.

Most teams and players as young as these guys would have given up and put their heads down after being down 2-0 with little time left in the game, but the Eagles didn’t quit and scored quickly with five minutes left in the game. With time running out, the Eagles had a few more opportunities to score, including an attempt that sadly shot off of the post.

Overall, this team has a very inspirational story. They made the playoffs and finished second in the Mount Hood Conference, which is incredible, and just last year, Head Coach Justin Rosenblad was diagnosed with stomach cancer, and this year he won the Coach of the Year Award for the Mount Hood Conference.

Former varsity basketball coach, John Poetsch said, “He was very deserving of the award. I’ve seen many coaches receive the award, but many aren’t worthy of it. The fact that this team had a 2-9-2 record last season (1-4-2 in conference) while not being coached by Rosenblad, and are now the second best team in the conference says a lot about coach Rosenblad.”

The team is losing eight seniors including: Dawson Day, Aaron Clark, Jonathan Ortiz, Cin Sang, Nick Henry, Brandon Nava-Ruiz, Marco Garcia-Sierra, and Jose Ventura. On the upside, many of these players plan on playing soccer in college.

Rosenblad said, “A key factor to this team’s success was their chemistry. On the other hand, what’s tough is that we are losing a lot of seniors, but this season we have a few freshman that got to experience a lot of playing time. Next season should be another surprising one I’m hoping.”