MONTESANO — Forks boys soccer is returning to the Class 1A State Tournament for the first time in a decade.
The Spartans gritted out a 2-1 win over Seton Catholic on Wednesday at Montesano High School to advance to the Southwest District 4 championship on Saturday and seal a spot in the 16-team state tournament.
“We had a lot of fans down in Montesano and we did celebrate. We were pretty happy,” Forks coach Joe Morton said. “We beat a team that was probably supposed to beat us. They are a private school with all these 6-foot guys and they had been penciled in to that district championship game and all our short guys beat them.”
The Spartans (13-4-0) will face unbeaten Winlock-Toledo United (14-0-4) in the district championship at Seton Catholic High School in Vancouver at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Regardless of the outcome of that contest, Morton said Forks will host a Class 1A state tournament game on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Against Seton Catholic, Forks scored first in the 27th minute.
“Hugo Sandoval had the ball in the right corner of the box down by the touch line and somehow he dribbled through two or three guys and made the perfect cross right through the box to Tony [Hernandez-Flores] who finished to the far post behind the keeper,” Morton said.
The Cougars (13-3-0) tied the score at 1-1 in the 35th minute.
Terrones shines in goal
Tied at halftime, Morton said the message in the locker room was pretty simple.
“We had to beat them to the ball, win all the 50-50 balls. We weren’t doing that too well,” Morton said. “But we were playing our game and keeping a high-powered offensive team in check. They couldn’t get any good shots off against our defenders.”
Forks and goalie Gabe Terrones withstood a Seton Catholic barrage out of halftime.
“Gabe in goal. He saved us,” Morton said. “He had 10 goal-saving saves. That was the best game he’s played all season and the most he’s had to work. They were the best team we faced all year.”
Hernandez-Flores found the winning goal with 12 minutes left.
“That stemmed from being able to play out of the back,” Morton said. “Our outside left back Rafael Terrones was able to get in on the play and make an overlapping run with our outside mid Luis Perez. Terrones passed it to Perez who played it over to Tony and he put one in coming from the left side this time.”
Morton said the score deflated Seton Catholic.
“Their balloon popped,” Morton said.
“The first 15 minutes of the second they were pounding us, running, running, running and I think they got defeated by the fact that little old Forks came to win.”
Terrones stood tall in goal to close out the win.
“Gabe had to make four or five really good saves in the final minutes, but you could see in their body language, they were done,” Morton said. “They didn’t have the full-team run like they had in the first half.”
Baseball Sequim 12, Lindbergh 0
BREMERTON — The Wolves went a long way to make short work of the Eagles in a loser-out district playoff game at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds on Wednesday.
Sequim (14-8) advances to face Olympic League foe North Kitsap (17-6) in a loser-out, winner-to-state contest Saturday at 9:30 a.m. at Franklin Pierce High School in Tacoma.
The Wolves were swept by the Vikings in two close regular-season contests, falling 3-0 and 2-1.
In Wednesday’s game, Sequim pitchers Michael Young and Joey Oliver combined to one-hit Lindbergh and the pair received plenty of run support at the plate.
The Wolves put two runs across with two out in the second inning with Brandon Barnett drawing a full-count walk to get things going.
A Caleb Pozernick single and a walk to Kyler Rollness loaded the bases and Young drew a four-pitch walk to bring home Barnett.
The second run came when Rollness got in a pickle between bases, allowing pinch-runner Ryan Porter to score.
A 10-run third inning did the rest of the damage for Sequim.
Hayden Eaton drew a walk with the bases loaded and added an RBI single as the Wolves batted around the order.
Porter and Rollness also had RBI singles and Michael Grubb and Young drew walks with the bases loaded in the big inning.
Sequim batters pounded out 11 hits, all singles, and earned eight walks in the game.
Sequim 12, Lindbergh 0
Lind 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 1 0
Seq 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 12 11 1
WP: M. Young LP: Tift
Pitching
Lindbergh — Tift 2 IP, 5ER, 4H, 4BB, 3K; Duncan 0.2 IP, 4H, 7 ER, 3BB, K; Johnson 0.1 IP, 2H, BB; Dompier IP, H, K.
Sequim — M. Young 4IP, H, 6K; Oliver IP, K.
Hitting
Sequim — Barnett 2-2, BB, 2R, 3RBI, ; M. Young 1-1, 2BB, R, 2RBI; Thomas 2-3, 2R, RBI; Porter 1-1, 2R, RBI; Rollness 1-1, R, RBI; Eaton 1-2, R, 2RBI; BB.
Girls Tennis Olympic League 1A
CHIMACUM — Chimacum’s doubles duo of Grace Yaley and Renee Woods qualified as the Olympic League’s No. 1 seed for the Class 1A West Central District Tournament.
The Cowboys’ Makela Caskey also advanced as the league’s No. 3 singles player.
Port Townsend’s Madison Hess qualified as the No. 2 singles player.
The district tournament will be held at Sprinker Recreation Center in Tacoma on Wednesday and Thursday.
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Compiled from team reports. Email scores to sports@peninsuladailynews.com or phone 360-417-3525.
