Boys soccer: Westminster Christian wins regional title

In a matter of minutes after halftime, Genoa-Kingston went from being tied with Westminster Christian to trailing by three in Wednesday's Class 1A Hinckley-Big Rock regional championship game.

It certainly wasn't the direction the Cogs were hoping to go, but they also didn't quit, mounting a comeback that just fell short in a season-ending 5-4 loss on a drizzly night.

"We almost had that comeback," Cogs senior forward Michael Botello said. "We gave it our all, 100%. I'm happy that we didn't give up. We played until the end."

Westminster Christian (17-2-1) had beaten the Cogs 4-1 on Oct. 3, but limped into halftime deadlocked at 1-1.

"Everyone was down against each other because we thought we played very poorly that first half," Warriors senior Jaxson Schultze said. "We were all down and upset with ourselves and talking like we have to bring it back to the game or we're going to lose it. And when it's 1-1 like that the next goal is going to determine the rest of the game in my opinion."

The Warriors needed less than a minute to pull ahead 2-1 in the second half after a little give-and-go between Schultze and senior Stephen Boldt.

"I passed it to Jaxson down the sideline and he passed it back to the middle and there was nobody on me," Boldt said. "I turned and shot it into the bottom corner."

Schultze then followed with a line shot that he curved just inside the near post just a little more than five minutes into the second half to make it 3-1.

Sophomore Jake Arnold then joined in on the scoring barrage with a header with 32:27 left in the game to make it 4-1.

"Coach basically told us we've got to start fast and get that first goal," Boldt said. "We knew we couldn't get frustrated. This was very different from the last time we played them. They definitely game-planned a lot better and they knew who our good players were and they were double and triple marking me and Jaxson in the middle. We normally have two attackers and they were playing with five defenders so it was hard to do stuff, but we broke through, obviously, we scored five goals."

The beginning of what proved to be a hat trick evening from Genoa-Kingston forward John Wolcott occurred with 21:06 left in the opening half. The senior buried a shot inside the far post from the left side of the box.

The lead was a short one as Boldt answered about three minutes later with a beautifully struck short free kick that went untouched before settling in the net.

Wolcott sparked the Cogs bid for a rally when scored on a counterattack with 24:09 remaining to make it a 4-2 game.

A penalty kick from Schultze with 16:13 left made it 5-2, but the Cogs brushed it aside.

"We controlled most of the last game which was way smoother than tonight," Schultze said. "I think the wet field kind of threw us off, and once we were up by three goals we all kind of chilled out and that's when they started coming back and bringing that fire back to the game."

From the very start, the Cogs (12-7-3) fought adversity, losing starting goalkeeper Jaime Serna to an injury with 34:15 still to play in the first half. Freshman Chris Fuentes replaced him and made a handful of nice saves, but the Warriors were often relentless with their attack.

"I imagine it had to be scary being a freshman," Cogs senior defender Brandon Hernandez-Villalobos said. "We kept our spirits high. I feel our team did pretty good. We didn't let the score bring us down. We kept the energy up and we were almost able to come back. Unfortunately, we weren't able to, but we did accomplish some great things even though our season ended this way."

The Warriors had only allowed 11 goals coming into action and hadn't allowed more than two in any game.

"We had more shots on goal and more possession than we did last time," Botello said. "We thought today we would have a good chance, but we just didn't come through at the end."

Westminster Christian will face Richmond-Burton on Saturday morning in a Class 1A Oregon sectional semifinal.