ROCHESTER — Coming off a loss to Montesano earlier in the week, Centralia coach Luis Magana was hoping to see more from his offense against Rochester.
Olivia Gruginski and the Tigers came through, as Gruginski scored a hat trick in Centralia’s 3-0 win over the Warriors on Thursday.
“I’m proud that (Olivia) was able to score a hat trick,” Magana said. “I’m pretty proud of what I saw from the offense.”
The first 20 minutes were more back-and-forth, but once Gruginski found the back of the net for the first time in the 25th minute, the Tigers began to take control of the game.
“I think we were just as good of a team as they are,” Rochester coach Matt Ashton said. “But once they got their first goal, we kind of let down.”
Gruginski doubled the Centralia lead five minutes after halftime, and she got her third less than 10 minutes later.
Magana was more than pleased with Gruginski’s performance, saying it’s nice to see her get her confidence back, but he also commended junior Trinity Smith. On Thursday, Magana moved Smith from the wing to center mid, and she contributed to both of Grukinski’s goals in the second half.
“I’m really proud of that,” Magana said.
Once they got rolling, the Tigers didn’t allow Rochester to generate many chances, but Braylee Blankenship came up with a save on a PK to preserve the clean sheet.
Magana often refers to Blankenship as one of the best keepers in the area, and he is hopeful that she will be in the running for all-league honors as the season progresses.
“She’s working hard,” Magana said. “And any opportunity she has, she’s trying to show out.”
On the other bench, Ashton is looking for more consistency from his group, saying that the team he saw on Thursday didn’t look like the team he saw beat Toledo on Wednesday.
“We have the ability to be a team, but we’re still learning how to do that,” Ashton said. “We just need to learn how to put it all together.
“But we come back tomorrow, we work on trying to get things better, and we have to be ready next Thursday when we play Elma.”
Before their league opener against Elma, the Warriors (1-3-1) will head to Aberdeen on Saturday and host Black Hills on Thursday in their final non-league matchups.
Centralia, which is now in the win column at 1-2-1, will return home to face Elma on Tuesday before heading to Shelton for their league-opener on Thursday.
“I’m happy we got on the board,” Magana said. “I’m happy with the win. I hope that we continue with this momentum and keep pushing forward onto league.”
