It took until after the handshake line, but the entire Tumwater High School boys soccer team pulled up the NFHS feed for the game between Aberdeen and Centralia. It was in overtime and the T-Birds were hopeful.
The opportunity to erase a memory 96 hours earlier at home was suddenly possible. And the Tigers made sure of that.
With Tumwater’s 2-1 victory over W.F. West and Centralia’s 2-1 verdict in overtime over Aberdeen, the T-Birds are Evergreen Conference champions based on more points (25-22) despite losing both meetings to the Bobcats.
They’ll be the league’s No. 1 seed in the Class 2A District 4 tournament, opening up versus Hudson’s Bay on Saturday.
“They erupted, dumped a bucket of water on my head, pretty exciting,” Tumwater head coach John Hayes said. “Good game back and forth; both teams competed.”
Dylan Stevens gave the Thunderbirds (10-6, 8-2 EvCo) the early lead on an assist from Gavin Cuoio in the 14th minute. Twelve minutes later, Cuoio buried a free kick far post to double the margin.
W.F. West (7-8, 6-4) trimmed the lead in the 42nd minute on a goal by Moises Hernandez, but that was all its offense could muster and it couldn’t extend the contest on senior night.
“Boys played hard, particularly the second half,” Bearcats head coach Allen Anderson said.
In a pigtail contest on Thursday, W.F. West will host Washougal with the winner set to take on Hockinson on Saturday.
