WP Tigers Fall To Dragons In Overtime

PRESCOTT - In the end, the Tigers' playoff game against Spokane's St. George Saturday wasn't all about winning or losing.

After the teams tied each other twice this season, the seeding game was to determine who would continue the state playoffs as numbers one and two.

WP has one more playoff game before the state championship tournament in Sumner in two weeks. But that game is against a team they beat handily earlier in the season.

St. George won the match 2-1 after striker Erik Muelheims scored the golden goal that ended one of the best contests of the year in overtime.

After a second season in which the Tigers trounced most of their opponents with double- digit scores, the much-anticipated game against St. George had all the intensity and drama of a very close playoff game.

"They're a great team to play," Tigers' striker Lino Diaz said about the Dragons. "We both tied hard."

The Tigers now face Moses Lake Christian on Saturday. WP defeated Moses Lake 5-0 on Oct. 12. If WP wins, they'll play the winner of the St. George versus Grace Academy game in the semifinals on Nov. 18.

Saturday's game against the Dragons saw the Tigers dominate early. WP scored within 10 minutes of the opening whistle, when a strike from Francisco Gonzalez landed hard high left in the Dragons' net.

St. George battled back, launching a rocket on Pedro Mendoza's goal about four minutes later, but Mendoza kept it out with a scooping motion that limited the damage to a St. George corner kick.

With a couple of minutes to go in the first half, the Dragons' momentum in front of the WP goal built with a crescendo of two close-range shots that were saved in the goal by Ernesto Valdivinos and Diaz to keep red-clad St. George scoreless before the break. But he couldn't keep out the next challenge from the set play, a perfectly placed corner cross, which Dragon Bruce Culbertson headed in the high left corner of the goal for the equalizer with 12:13 to go in the game.

The tying score lifted the Dragons' spirit and attacks on the Tigers' box, but the WP players kept their cool. The game was still tied when 80 minutes of regulation time came to an end, forcing the contest into overtime with two short 5-minute periods and a golden goal rule called for in high school soccer.

The first five minutes yielded no score, but several minutes into the second overtime half, Muelheims took a pass from Camus Colbertson and launched a high arching shot Mendoza was unable to reach back to save, sending the Dragons into a jubilant celebration and off to the state playoffs as the top seed, followed by the Tigers seeded second.

"It was a great game," he said in a short interview. "They (St. George) have quality players. We'll see them again in the semi finals. That's our goal."