The Centralia soccer team’s wave of momentum from back-to-back league wins lasted fewer than 60 seconds in a rivalry context Thursday, as W.F. West struck right off the bat and rode out 4-0 winners at Tiger Stadium.
“We came in with a gameplan of trying to go out there and compete from the first minute of the game, but unfortunately we kind of got startled and they scored in the first minute,” first-year Centralia coach Noel Vazquez said. “That just changed our whole gameplan of how we wanted to approach the game.”
The first-minute goal held up the rest of the first half as the game’s only mark, and most of the second as well, as the Tigers threw more and more upfield to try to equalize.
“We wanted to go forward and get that one goal, and we exposed ourselves,” Vazquez said.
The result was a flurry of three goals in the final 10 minutes of play, pushing the game out of any sort of doubt.
The clean sheet was W.F. West’s first of the season.
Olivia Gruginski had all five shots – four of which were on frame – for Centralia. Between the sticks, Liliana Babka had eight saves.
W.F. West (3-4, 2-2 2A EvCo) will host Black Hills on Tuesday, while Centralia (2-5, 2-2 2A EvCo) will face the Wolves on the road next Thursday.
