Valley Soccer Round UpWith

Soccer playoffs are just around the corner, and both Touchet Valley teams will get a shot at state champion­ships. The undefeated WP Tigers are a record 16-0 and top 1B/2B soccer team in the state. They also met assistant coach Bart Baxter's personal goal to make over 100 goals in their first season. After defeating Moses Lake 5-0 Saturday and Walla Walla Valley Academy 7-2 Mon­day,

the Tigers have scored 109 goals in the season and only allowed 14.

"It's been an exceptional year," said head coach Rick Hamilton. "The kids have just responded very well to the competition. They have taken on everyone and really showed that they are the best team on the east side of the mountains." Hamilton is not pleased, however, with the playoffs schedule. Since WP played this year as an independent team rather than joining the league, they won't be part of the regular district playoffs. They'll wait until the dust settles in Spokane later this week and get one shot at go­ing to state - by defeating the District 7 winner. "I don't know what can be done about changing the playoff brackets, but just because we're a first-year program and because we're independent does not mean we should not get the same, fair chance that anyone else is getting," Hamilton said.

As it stands, the Tigers will play their qualifying game Nov. 4 at 2 p.m. in Prescott. The Dayton Bulldogs have a shot at district glory as well. They play in Spo­kane on Thursday. Recent performances on the field has head coach D.J. Frame and his players excited about the challenge. The team played in Trout Lake, Wash., on Friday and Saturday overnight with two losses, 0-4 and 1-5. "We came out flat," Frame said. "But the encouraging part was that people coming off our bench came in and played great. Our bench basi­cally shut them out during the second half." Tuesday night at Moses Lake, the Bulldogs experi­enced a 1-4 loss, "but man we played better than the score," Frame said. "It left us excited for the playoffs."

Stand out players Tues­day were Andre Fayette, Zane Miller, Anders Warner, Frame said. "We're fortunate to have two guys who care deeply about individual play­ers in Jerry Dedloff and Jeff McCowen."