The Mountain View Thunder celebrated their 1-0 3A bi-district consolation boys soccer victory over league-rival Evergreen on Thursday with a team photo, but they know there’s still more to be done in order to make a repeat appearances in the Class 3A state tournament.
The Thunder now face another league rival — Prairie — in Saturday’s 11 a.m. winner-to-state game at McKenzie Stadium with the final state berth at stake. The Falcons topped Bethel, 5-1, in their bi-district consolation game Thursday.
“We’re going to come out as hard as we ever came out before,” said junior Christopher Grozav. “The (loss) on Tuesday was really tough against Peninsula. Saturday we’re going ot come out and we’re going to do it.”
Mountain View, the 3A GSHL league champion beat Prairie, 2-1, in the teams’ first meeting, but tied 0-0 April 26. The Thunder swept the regular-season series versus Evergreen 1-0 and 5-1, but it was the Plainsmen who created more first-half chances to find the back of the net.
Grozav’s goal in the 45th minute from Justin Lufkin-Quant proved to be the difference maker to extend the Thunder’s (12-5-1) season. Evergreen’s season ends at 8-10-1.
“We had a good conversation at halftime what we needed to do in the second half,” Grozav said. “We came out in the first 5 (minutes) and put it away.”
3A bi-district, Prairie 5, Bethel 1 — Five different players scored goals as a fast start sent the Falcons to the fifth-place match at the 3A bi-district tournament.
Prairie will play Mountain View on Saturday for a berth to state.
Skylar McKinnon, Mark Mishchuk, Lucas Tisdale and Tyler Hunt scored first-half goals as Prairie took a 4-1 lead.
“We came in confident we could play,” Prairie coach Michael Thyron said. “When we lost to Wilson (last weekend), we were the more dominating team. We just couldn’t buy a goal. We outshot them 20-4, but hit the crossbar three times and lost on PKs. That gave us confidence coming into tonight.”
Owen Clayton added a fifth goal in the second half.
4A bi-district, Hazen 2, Camas 1 — Luke Davidson scored Camas’ lone goal as the Papermakes saw their season end.
2A district, Ridgefield 3, Tumwater 0 — Nathan Niel, Fernando Jimenez and Trevor Johnson scored for the Spudders who advance to the third-place game at district.
Ridgefield will host Aberdeen for a berth to state on Saturday.
