ROCHESTER — Déjà vu.
For the second time this season, the Rochester High School boys soccer team went into halftime knotted up against Raymond/South Bend. Those final 40 minutes are where the Warriors faltered on April 3.
It happened again on Thursday night with a side of heartbreak.
RSB’s Adam Mora unleashed a rocket from the right side inside the penalty box in the 78th minute to break the tie and secure an outright Evergreen League regular season title with a 2-1 triumph at Rochester High school.
“Truly, I think we had a chance to put at least three in the back of the net in that first half and we couldn’t pull the trigger,” Warriors head coach Matt Ashton said. “(RSB’s) in first for a reason.
It was a chaotic crowd with the Ravens threatening. Jose Ramirez had the first look and the ball bounced around a bit before Mora found it, took one touch and fired the winner. Rochester had a couple pushes late, but didn’t find the equalizer.
Its best opportunity came in the 80th minute on a foul just outside the box and Aiden Villanueva’s free kick rolled right to the wall and cleared by RSB.
By the time the final whistle sounded, the Warriors were in disbelief on their senior night. They had three free kicks close to the box and none of them mustered a clan look at the net.
“They were ready to come out and play them,” Ashton said. “We may face them again. We’re not a team they’ll be able to roll over.”
Still, a runner-up finish in the league is in front of Rochester (10-5, 10-4 Evergreen).
Wins over Hoquiam on Saturday and Tenino next week puts the Warriors in second place and guarantees them a home district tournament first round contest on May 10.
“Bringing the momentum into the playoffs, hopefully (we) can make a run,” junior defender Justin Gochez said.
The tying goal in the 29th minute came off a throw-in by Evan Cone directly to the noggin of Ramirez. For much of the next 50 minutes, RSB didn’t create many chances, primarily through the air.
When it did attempt to connect long balls, the backline of the Warriors matched up physically with the league’s last unbeaten.
The momentum from a 1-0 victory over Montesano on Tuesday carried over defensively. Gochez felt it was one of the better defensive matches they’ve played, even with the two goals allowed.
“We were clearly the better team, just got unlucky,” Gochez said. “We put (up) a really good fight. Clearly should have been our night.”
He put Rochester in front in the 25th minute on a free kick. Just over 20 yards out, the right-footer drilled his shot just over the out-reached hands of Ravens netminder Miguel Perez and right underneath the topo cross bar.
The actual target was to the top corner. It was just enough to get by and put the Warriors ahead 1-0.
“Just aiming high,” Gochez said.
Rochester had a handful of other chances on counters that weren't converted. Its top goalkeeper Ezra Aliff has missed the last couple of games and striker Christian Acahua was at less than 100 percent and limped off the field a couple times.
The shape changed from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3.
“We always want to get the ball out wide; a lot of times our balls were going too central,” Ashton said. “We didn’t have all the width we needed.”
The Warriors believe this loss will fuel them to end the regular season and any potential rematch against RSB would come in districts. Gochez already wants another bite at the apple.
“This is a very special group,” he said.
