Boys Soccer: WF West Wins 5th Straight with Shutout of Centralia

3/20/2024

WF West 4, Centralia 0

(Chehalis, WA) The first leg of the 2024 Chronicle Cup took place on Wednesday night in Chehalis as the Centralia Tigers took on the WF West Bearcats. In the 3rd year of the competition where the winner is awarded a massive trophy, both sides were looking to build the early advantage in what is an even series at 1-1.

Centralia’s defense held up against some early pressure as Alan Cox led the defensive charge while Alejandro Arevalo was strong in goal for the Tigers as well. In the 24th minute Uzi Lopez Cruz broke the tie with some fancy footwork. Lopez Cruz dribbled through traffic and even though the ball did get deflected by a Centralia defender, the Bearcat junior was able to get it back and fire it into the back of the net to give WF West a 1-0 lead. That opened up the floodgates for WF West as the Bearcats poured it on. A shot by Nano Jaimes deflected off of a Tiger defender and past Arevalo to make it 2-0 in the 28th minute. Four minutes later, Moi Sanchez-Hernandez took advantage of a defensive miscue and got a one-on-one opportunity with the Tiger keeper and he cashed in to make it 3-0 Bearcats at halftime.

Centralia started the second half strong and started pressing the WF West defense. Fernando Lopez and Simba Osman led some nice runs and Sammy Carpio also played well in the attacks for Centralia. However the defense of WF West led by Charles Comisky, Jeremy Thompson, Gabe Burger, and Devin Canfield kept pressure off of both Bearcat goalies in Josh Madrigal and Cayden Page. In the 51st minute, Nano Jaimes hit a rocket on a free kick that was perfectly placed and sailed into the back of the net for the Better Homes and Gardens Takin’ it to the House Play of the Game and made it 4-0. Despite the Bearcats playing a man down after picking up a red card, WF West was able to keep the shutout alive as they put the finishing touches on the 4-0 win over Centralia.

Uzi Lopez Cruz earned the Thorbeckes MVP of the game. Uzi was tremendous in the attacking third for WF West and was the guy setting everything up. Tremendous speed and exceptional dribbling make the junior very difficult to defend and he was able to see the field and set up numerous Bearcat attacks and a couple of their goals as well.

The Bearcats improve to 5-1 and 5-0 in EVCO 2A league play and they will host Black Hills on Friday at 7pm. Centralia drops to 2-3 and 1-3 in league play. The Tigers will be off until Tuesday when they visit the Black Hills Wolves.