Posted Wednesday November 12, 2008

UMATILLA - The Umatilla Vikings defeated the Riverside Pirates 3-2 on Tuesday, November 11, 2008. The Vikings will go on to play Portland Christian for the state finals at Wilsonville on Saturday at 1PM. Umatilla showed cohesiveness and confidence in the win against a team that had defeated them twice during the season.

The weather was cloudy and about 55 degrees at game time. A large crowd of fans from both schools arrived to cheer the teams during the match.

The majority of the first half was scoreless as both teams tried to find plays that would work. Riverside finally broke through with a goal 26 minutes into the first half. Juan Colin drove into the Umatilla zone and blasted a shot past Umatilla goalkeep. to take a 1-0 lead.

Umatilla's Yeldar Orduna scored in the 29th minute shooting from the goalkeep's left side across the goal opening to the far corner tieing the score 1-1.

Mario Anaya of Umatilla scored next with a driving goal from directly in front of the Pirate goal. The goal gave Umatilla the 2-1 lead.

Both teams took about the same number of shots on goal during the first half. It looked as if Riverside was working harder to get into range to take the shots. Umatilla was able to drive to the Riverside zone as the half went on.

The first ten minutes of the second half was mostly played in the Riverside zone as the Vikings were able to put more pressure on the Pirates. The Pirates were able to hold off a Viking goal until the 16th minute when Mario Anaya scored his second goal on a drive up the middle drawing the Riverside goalkeep out of position. The goal gave Umatilla the 3-1 lead.

Riverside players looked frustrated and whatever they tried it seemed like Umatilla was able to counter. At about the thirty minute mark Riverside seemed to pick up the pace of play and began trying different things to counter the successful defense that Umatilla was using.

In the 33rd minute Hugo Morales of Riverside drove in against the Viking goalkeep's left side and drove a kick deep into the right side of the goal to make the score 3-2.

As the final six minutes rolled Riverside tried to pressure the Umatilla defense to get another scoring opportunity. It seemed like Umatilla could close down the usual passing game that Riverside used.

The teams played a spirited final six minutes. With about 30 seconds to play Alejandro Pacheco had the opportunity for a free kick. He set up the ball and his Riverside teammates set up a final play in an attempt to tie the score. Pacheco looked over his left shoulder to watch the clock count down to below 17 seconds and his kick into a Riverside set piece. Riverside couldn't make anything and Umatilla took the win 3-2.

Umatilla senior Mario Anaya was excited about the big win. "It feels really good going on to the finals. We haven't been to the finals so this is big. We had to keep trying our best to make it to the finals. We played our hearts out."

"It was a nightmare. Every time we played Riverside they beat us and beat us and we got tired of it."

Adrian Soto, a Umatilla junior, commented, "We had some tough times but we pulled it out."

Umatilla junior Maximo Bedolla "It feels awesome. Last time went to the second round and this time it's the championship. It's a big difference."

It was a lot of work for the midfielder. "I'm tired. I had to run alot. We had to play defense hard the last couple of minutes. They were trying to come back on us. But we held on. We bunched up on them so they couldn't do anything with the ball. We studied them well. We played them twice this year. They beat us 4-1 and 4-2 and this time we fixed our mistakes. Thanks to our coach and the people who came to watch us."

Playoff action

Umatilla will travel to Wilsonville for the final against Portland Christian on Saturday November 15 at 1pm.

Photos by Terry Aichele