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Where's Westview? Click
here.
By BEN MCCARTY
News staff writer
Nov. 8, 2007
Hood River Valley's boys soccer
team was down three goals with 30 minutes left to play.
Southwest Conference player of the year Andrew Meyer and the
South Eugene Axemen were poised to finish off an Eagle squad
playing far from home in hostile territory.
Not a problem.
The Eagles scored three goals in
the final 30 minutes to force overtime, and then scored twice in
overtime to advance to the Class 6A state quarterfinals with a
5-4 win.
“It's probably the most
unbelievable game I’ve ever been involved with,” HRV coach Doug
Beveridge said.
The victory sends the Eagles to a
quarterfinal match up with Metro League champion Westview noon
Saturday in Beaverton.
The Wildcats, the state’s No.1
ranked team heading into the postseason, defeated Lake Oswego
1-0 on Tuesday.
After the Eagles went into
halftime down 2-0, Beveridge said the team felt like it still
had hope, but when South Eugene scored again in the early
minutes of the second half, it seemed to leave the Eagles' hopes
all but dashed.
Then they started fighting back.
Felipe Heredia converted a
penalty kick to give the Eagles a heartbeat, and HRV’s high
power offense did the rest.
“He hit it with such force it was
a statement right there,” Beveridge said.
Raul Marquez scored a few minutes
later with an assist from Diego Diaz, then Heredia tied it with
about 10 minutes to play to force overtime.
In the overtime period Diaz put
the Eagles on top, but South Eugene tied it on a goal off a
corner kick.
That set the stage for Ceasar
Hernandez, who punched in a left-footed goal with four minutes
to play in the second overtime period to send the Eagles to the
next round and leave South Eugene stunned.
For the Eagles it was the chance
to exorcise the ghosts of last season, which ended with a loss
to Grant in which the Generals scored in the final moments of
overtime.
“I was just starting to fill out
the lineups for penalty kicks and then I saw the play develop
and then boom we won,” Beveridge said.
The loss was the first time this
season that South Eugene surrendered more than three goals in a
match, and for the Eagles, it was the third consecutive game in
which they have scored at least five goals.
For more updates on the Eagles
progress in the state playoffs, continue to check
hoodrivernews.com and see the Nov. 10 edition of the Hood River
News. Saturday’s quarterfinal game between HRV and Westview will
be broadcast on KIHR 1340 beginning at 11:45 a.m.
For a complete playoff bracket, click
here.
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