In their pursuit of a 4A Greater St. Helens League boys soccer title, the Union Titans approached each of their final five regular season games as if they were in the playoffs.
The Titans leaned into that mindset during several high-pressure moments Tuesday against Skyview and found a way to keep calm.
Less than a minute into the golden goal overtime period, Union senior Canaan Moore confidently struck a shot from a tight angle for the game-winning goal, sending the Titans a 3-2 win and an outright 4A GSHL title.
Union (12-3-1, 5-1) finished atop the league standings ahead of second-place Camas and Skyview in third heading into the 4A bi-district tournament beginning Saturday.
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“The majority of this group, we’ve been in this position before, playing for a league title,” Moore said. “We knew what it took. I think everybody today just kind of showed that next level of class, of being able to calm down and make that comeback.”
The Titans were forced into comeback mode after ceding a goal in the 34th minute to Skyview’s Silas Deyo and went into halftime facing a 1-0 deficit.
Their activity picked up to start the second half, and nearly 20 minutes later, the Titans were rewarded when Marco Abad scored on a second-chance effort after Skyview saved Moore’s initial shot.
Union took its first lead approaching the 70-minute mark when Aaron Anitok Brokken played a ball through to Akeem Archer, who delivered a pinpoint cross to Elijah Bunda for a goal at close range.
“We’ve been in this situation before. We just had to push through it,” Archer said. “Our coach (Jason Moore) told us to play our way, play how we know — and we did that.”
That lead stood for just seven minutes until Skyview’s Joseph Hensel scored on an assist from Asher Cole to force overtime.
Another momentum swing the Titans were well-equipped to handle.
Forty-five seconds into the OT period, a loose ball found in the left corner found its way to Moore. The senior captain and raised his arms as the ball left his foot and found the net. Union players stormed the Skyview High School pitch and surrounded Moore to celebrate.
“It’s the kind of shot that once you hit, you can just tell you hit it different than the rest of the game,” Moore said. “It was a tight angle and I just kind of believed. As soon as it came off my foot, I was already turning toward the crowd. I wasn’t looking back. I just had the feeling it was in.”
The win marked Union’s fifth straight in the 4A GSHL after dropping its opener to Camas 2-0 on April 16.
With little margin for error, the Titans responded with wins over Battle Ground and Skyview, then got revenge against the Papermakers with a 3-2 win on April 30. That result, combined with a Camas draw against Skyview, cleared a path for the Titans to capture the league title.
They seized it with a strong closing performance Tuesday, setting the stage for the postseason.
“The mantra of (these) last few games ever since the loss at Camas has been, every league game is a playoff game,” Moore said. “There’s no second chance. … Treating it as a playoff game, we knew the stakes.”
