Rochester senior Alexis Castillo-Corona scored his second-straight hat trick to help Rochester to a 3-1 win over W.F. West in a 2A Evergreen Conference matchup at home on Tuesday.
Castillo-Corona, who was coming off a hat trick against Black Hills last week, continued his hot streak on Tuesday by notching his eighth goal in the past four games. It’s no coincidence the Warriors have now won four matches in a row.
“He’s on a roll,” Rochester coach Matt Ashton said. “We have the bus rolling in the right direction.”
It didn’t come easy as Ashton said he and his team knew W.F. West would come out and challenge them from the get-go — and the Bearcats did.
“We knew Chehalis was going to come in and play us hard,” Ashton said.
But the Warriors were able to keep shape defensively and keep possession of the ball, for the most part. And when the Bearcats did gain possession, the Warriors were able to get it back.
“Defensively, over the last four games, that’s what has kept us going,” Ashton said. “It’s allowing our goal scorers to get opportunities.”
Castillo-Corona put the Warriors up 1-0 in just the eighth minute off an assist from Eduardo Francisco. Castillo-Corona notched his brace in the 31st minute off a penalty kick to make it 2-0.
But the Bearcats battled back to pull within one just before the half with a goal from Adrian Jaimes off a penalty kick.
Castillo-Corona gave the Warriors a two-goal lead with a goal in the 53rd minute off an assist from Levi Jennings to cap the scoring on the night.
“Really good ball control from Alexis on the inline,” Ashton said. “It was a pretty hard angle and I was kind of surprised he made it.”
For the Bearcats, it was their second loss in the past three games — and Tuesday’s loss was made even more frustrating with a slew of Bearcat starters out with injury.
“Probably not our best game of the year,” W.F. West coach Allen Anderson said. “We’re struggling with adversity right now. We have a handful of starters out with injury and the rest of the starters are not playing at 100% health. But the guys played hard. Rochester did a good job adjusting and getting numbers back.”
W.F. West (5-3 EvCo) heads to Centralia for the inaugural The Chronicle Cup rivalry match.
Rochester (4-4 EvCo) continues league play when it travels to Aberdeen on Friday.
