Helped by two goals from David Espinoza in the first six minutes, and another from Max Craig in the 13th, the Tenino boys soccer team bounced back from a tough defeat a few days ago to defeat Hoquiam on the road, 4-1, Friday.
Espinoza led the charge, scoring unassisted in the fourth minute before doubling down after a nice pass from Tyler Minerich set him up for another just two minutes later.
Craig made it 3-0 after 13 minutes off a nice feed from Tristan Whitaker, and Whitaker got in on the scoring action in the 66th minute off a find from Espinoza to finish off the Beaver barrage.
For head coach Kevin Schultz, it was a nice sight to see after working on their offense Thursday.
“It really paid off, especially early in the game,” Schultz said of Thursday’s practice. “We knew we wanted to get some diagonal passes from our winger to our other winger, which is what happened on the second goal.”
The Grizzlies scored their lone goal in the 80th minute right before the final horn on a penalty kick by Roman Bedolla.
Playing with a comfortable lead for most of the game, Schultz unloaded his bench and played a lot of guys that got their first significant varsity minutes, including Jayden Merritt, who played well on defense.
“First big varsity minutes of the season and he did really well, really stepped up,” Schultz said.
Schultz also gave credit to his two keepers, Alex Reichelderfer and Rowdy Tafoya for playing well, with Reichelderfer having four first half saves and Tafoya making three in the second half.
“Just a good team game, the intensity was good today, it was a good response,” Schultz said.
The Beavers (7-5, 6-4 1A Evergreen) will rematch with Montesano on the road Wednesday at 7 p.m. in their next contest.
