NWC Ousts Tigers In Soccer Quarters

SPOKANE – Too-famil­iar foe Northwest Christian eliminated the Tigers from the state tournament in a, 5-1, first round loss on Sat­urday at Whitworth Univer­sity in Spokane.

It was the Crusaders’ third-straight victory in four total tries over WP this sea­son, and the second four- goal margin.

WP got on the board first in 15th minute. Ernesto Valdovinos posted the goal on an assist from Rodrigo Gonzalez. NWC netted an equalizer 3 minutes later when forward Jacob Weaver questionably beat the WP defense, scoring the first of his four goals. WP coaches asked for an offside penalty on the play, but were denied.

WP appeared to retake the lead in the 23rd minute when Valdovinos collected a Fernando Torres-Escalante free kick from the corner off his midriff then booted it home, but the goal was disallowed. Valdovinos was called for a handball instead, the referee saying the ball first hit Valdovinos’ forearm instead.

Northwest Christian put WP on the ropes with two more first half goals at the 29th and 36th minutes. WP trailed, 3-1, at halftime.

Two minutes into the second period, Valdovinos misfired at a wide open net. WP would rue that missed opportunity when the Cru­saders scored their fourth goal 6 minutes later. The two squads played a score­less 20 minutes after that until NWC added their final marker at the 68th minute to complete the scoring.

“We started out well,” said WP assistant coach Jay Potts. “We scored first and we scored fast. We should have been up two to nothing, but they called a handball on us. It’s bad luck. Then our defense fell apart, way apart. Down, 3-1, we had an empty net, and we missed. Ernesto and Lino (Diaz) had a few chances to get us back in the game, but they missed, and our defense continued to be bad. We had no one fast enough to keep up with Jacob Weaver.”

The loss ends a tumultu­ous title-defense season for the Tigers. Injuries plagued the Tigers all year long.

“I’ve got to say the only reason we’re here (at state) is because of our head coach Mark Grimm,” said Potts. “He kept the team the to­gether through academic eligibility—staying on kids to get their grades up, and injuries—lots of injuries. We couldn’t keep them healthy. There weren’t two practices back-to-back with the same line-up. There were family losses on the team. Personal issues. Constantly changing personnel. I thought Grimm did a great job of keeping everyone together.”

The Tigers lose Diaz, Torres-Escalante, Aldair Es­calante, Gabe Escalante and Liz Xaudaro to graduation, but they return a large group of underclassmen for next year’s team.

“We’re strong. The core of our team is freshmen and sophomores, and there are a good couple of freshmen coming up next year,” said Potts. “Today, we got beat by a team that played bet­ter than we did. We believe we’re a better team top-to- bottom, but we have to prove it on the field.”