By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
TURNER, Ore.– The Cascade Boys Soccer team did something that they haven’t done since 2019:
Beat Stayton. Snapping a 13-game losing streak to the Eagles following their 3-2 victory on Tuesday afternoon.
Not just that, the Cougars snapped the Eagles 44-game Regular Season Winning streak that dates back to the 2023 season and snapped Stayton’s 25-game unbeaten streak. That latter streak saw the Eagles go 24-0-1 dating back to the start of last season.
“The guys have been wanting it since before the Summer. We got together in the Summer and we talked about what are our goal. Of course it’s ‘I want to win league’, ‘I want to win State’, but half of them said ‘I want to beat Stayton’. It’s personal for them. It’s the ten minute away rivalry,” said Cascade Head Coach Matt Dillon. “It’s great, it’s hitting me all at once.”
What was interesting about the victory was that Stayton took a 2-1 lead into halftime. Josiah Dessieux scored the Eagles’ first goal on a counterattack moments after Liam Clausen had given the Cougars the lead. Dessieux’s goal tied the match at 1-1 before Edwyn Perez scored in the 30th minute to give Stayton the 2-1 advantage.The first ten minutes of the second half saw Cascade pressuring the Stayton defense. It was similar to what they were doing in the first half in controlling the possession until Stayton was able to even out the playing field a little. But no one could land a deciding goal in either direction.
This week provided Stayton with its first big test of the season. The Eagles were coming off a 2-0 road victory over Newport on Tuesday before facing another tough challenge against Cascade as they entered the second half of the Oregon West Conference slate.”It’s good to face a team like Cascade, get used to them, we’ll play them again. Newport is also tough too, we kind of wasted our energy in that game and came here and we were kind of dead. It was a close game, it showed us that we can beat them, (Cascade) showed us that we need to work on our endurance to finish games like this, tough games like this because we just died there at the end,” said Stayton’s Ruben Bell.
Fatigue began to set in for Stayton during the final 20 minutes, and the Cougars took full advantage.
Their offense continued to pressure the Eagle defense, eventually picking up a Penalty Kick opportunity off a Stayton Hand Ball in the 65th minute. Julian Cabrera capitalized on the PK to draw Cascade even with the Eagles at two each. All of a sudden, a third wind of sorts with their energy levels came in for the Cougars.
All the defeats and heartbreak’s to Stayton, they weren’t going to let this one get away. And they didn’t.
With their momentum from Cabrera’s goal and seeing Stayton slowing down, Cascade clamped down and kept driving. They kept working.
Then. Success.
With about five minutes left in the game, Clausen scored his second goal of the game that gave the Cougars back the lead for the first time since early in the first half.
As he was mobbed by his teammates, the goal felt like the proverbial nail in the coffin, putting the pressure on Stayton to find an answer. The Cougars’ defense held firm, closing out the 3-2 victory and moving Cascade to the top of the OWC standings.
Yes. The Cougars are in first-place in the Oregon West Conference Standings at 3-0-1 with six games left in the regular season.
“It felt so good and for the seniors, it’s probably even better. Just trying not to get Mercy Ruled by Stayton, to beat them 3-2, this feels so good. Once the momentum picked up, I felt like we could keep possession, we played more aggressively,” said Clausen.
Cascade will wrap up the first loop through their league schedule at home against Taft. Stayton will host Philomath on Thursday at 6pm.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
