A young Centralia boys soccer squad saw some flashes of promise along with a few areas to work on in a 3-1, season-opening loss to Class 1A Columbia (White Salmon) in a non-league title at home on Tuesday.
The Tigers, who trailed 1-0 at the half, were able to get a second-half goal from Brayan Orellana-Gomez, assisted by Kevin Reyes-Gomez to cut the Tigers’ deficit to 3-1. But the Tigers were unable to find the goal again in the loss.
“Saw some good things and some bad things,” Centralia coach Henry Gallanger said. “It gives us a good glimpse of what we need to work on, and we’ll continue to chip away at them. It’s good to have these preseason games and experience a little bit, and get some games under our belt.”
The Tigers are still in a goal-keeper battle for the starting spot. Senior Victor Reyes started the first half, then was relieved by junior Carlos Hernandez in the second half.
“It was a good opportunity for them to both get in the mix tonight,” Gallanger said.
As a team, Gallanger said the Tigers did a nice job moving the ball around against a Bruins team that was compact in front of the goal. Columbia’s keeper also made a couple quality saves as well.
“We definitely out-shot them in the first half, we just couldn’t convert,” Gallanger said. “We felt we had a couple goals in us. We had a pretty decent share of possession. We just have to learn to connect and share with each other.”
The Tigers grew frustrated in the second half with the lack of scoring as the clock winded down and the sense of urgency grew.
Centralia will now get a chance to bounce back when it hosts United at 7 p.m. on Thursday. The Tigers will have some reinforcements with more players getting enough practices in to be eligible to play.
“We will have some fresh faces arriving; We’ll be navigating new players on the field and see what they give us,” Gallanger said. “Some impactful and starting players. We’ll also continue dedicating some time to goal-keeper training.”
