By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
SALEM, Ore.– The Cinderella story that was Cascade’s boys soccer season came to an end Tuesday night.
It wasn’t the result the Cougars had hoped for, but they fought tooth and nail to keep this incredible season alive against an established Marist program. Games of this magnitude weren’t unfamiliar territory for Cascade this fall, as the Cougars had repeatedly shown they could go toe-to-toe with some of the state’s best.
They split with Stayton, they took one from Newport and tied another with the Cubs. North Marion, Cascade won that as well. So they were accustomed to games like the one they were in at Capital FC in Salem when the Spartans came to town.
It was an evenly matched game. Marist went ahead in the final minute of the first half, only to see Cascade tie it up in the first minute of the second half. Enrique Alverez scored the tying goal for the Cougars 46 seconds into the second half.
And from there, it was a stalemate. Neither team broke under the pressure that the other was giving. It was intense as it entered Overtime tied at one. The passion was there as the first ten minute overtime period ended still tied at one apiece.
“We showed that Cascade has it in Soccer. We played a beautiful game, we played down in the first half. Then in the second half, we absolutely dominated possession, we held them. In extra time we held them, we had our chances and sometimes it didn’t go our way,” said Cascade Head Coach Matt Dillon. “I hate saying it, but it is what it is. We build back, we start again and we’ll be back.”
About two minutes left in the last Overtime period, the Cougars had their chance to take the lead when Julian Cabrera was fouled in the box that set up a Penalty Kick. The shot was stopped by Marist’s Nelson Holland-Bak.
All of a sudden, the Spartans had a little bit of a pip in their step as they were able to use that momentum to close out overtime to force PK’s to decide a winner.
“That was huge, I’ve never saved anything that big before in my life. That was so special and I’m so glad I could do with this team,” Holland-Bak said of the save.
Both teams were even through the first three rounds of PK’s. Holland-Bak stopped Cascade’s fourth shot and Marist made their fourth to give the Spartans a slight advance going into the last round. The Cougars were able to make their kick in the fifth-round, but couldn’t extend the PK’s beyond that as Marist took the game in PK’s 5-4.
Emotions erupted from both sides. Cheers and celebration on the Spartans side as they advance to take on Valley Catholic on Saturday in the 4A State Quarterfinals. Heartbreak and sadness for Cascade, who saw their season end.
Cascade had their first-ever Home Playoff Game, they finished just a spot out of first, 13 wins on the year after winning nine the last three years combined. They return a solid core from this year’s team, and with the experience that they had this year, expectations will be even higher next year for the Cougars to get back here and get beyond this first game of the postseason.
“They’ve been competing, they’ve been hanging with the Top Dogs all year. I think this is going to be the start of something new, we got a young core, we got a lot to build and we got good guys coming up and I’m really excited to see what next year looks like,” starts Dillon. “It’s going to be a hunger for sure. No one is going to shy away from competing next year, we want to take care of business.”
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
