Soccer: Columbia River holds off Puyallup in a big non-league showdown

4/19/2025

Columbia River 2, Puyallup 1

(Vancouver, WA) The 4A Puyallup Vikings traveled south to face 2A Columbia River in a mid-league season friendly. It is nice to see an established team like the Vikings travel to play a 2A powerhouse. There really is no-winning for a game like this regardless of how good the teams are for Puyallup.

If you are Vikings and win you are expected to win. If you lose then you lost to a 2A smaller team and it’s automatically considered an upset. So kudos to the Vikings for taking this match and taking on a team that likely could compete at the 4A level and while in the middle of their league schedule.

As this match began the usual aggressive Vikings came at the hometeam Rapids. On their best chance to score early the Vikings Zack Robertson was a step away from a one-on-one with C-R’s keeper Eli Smith when defender Miles Mashek came from nowhere and blocked Robertson’s kick. That play seemed to energize the Rapids.

C-R would strike first after flipping the field and firing multiple shots Jaydon Muodzi got his head on one which was about the 3rd entry pass and knocked into the right side of the net in the 14th minute to give the Rapids a 1-0 lead.

The Rapids were not finished and struck again in the 23rd minute with some help from one of the Vikings defender. Johnpaul Guzman passed the ball to the outside where Tyler Brown launched it back in to the far side of the box. A Puyallup defender then tried to clear but it went straight back to Guzman who ripped a shot right back at the defender who tried to avoid the ball as it was likely going to go wide but the ball deflected off his body and into the goal.

This gave Columbia River the 2-0 lead and that’s how it stay to the halftime break.

In the 2nd half both teams replaced their keepers with Aedan Pena stepping in for Eli Smith for C-R and Peyton Lewis coming in for Alexis Cruz for Puyallup. Both teams also went deeper into their bench as well. The game was physical and there were a couple of injuries. Puyallup’s Curran Caufield a spectacular sophomore mid went out with a head injury and did not return but was on the sideline for the remainder of the game.

Others on both sides got dinged up and both coaches, Matt White for Puyallup and Matt Newman for the Rapids clearly wanted to win the match but also needed manage a non-league match with still plenty of way more important league matches to be played.

The logic of that thought would not register with the two highly competitive teams and their players. Puyallup regained that aggressive nature in the 2nd half and reclaimed much of their lost possession time with multiple attacks. But the Rapids backline and Pena were still able to keep the clean sheet until Viks senior Zack Robertson broke through in the 62nd minute.

Off a free kick the ball entered the box and an intitial shot was blocked by Pena but bounced right to Robertson who knew what to do with it and punched it in from short distance to pull the Vikings within 1, down 2-1.

Puyallup kept up the attack but it looked like the Rapids were going to hold as they entered stoppage time. After the full 80 minutes had ticked off the clock is when Robertson struck again with a furious rally the veteran senior appeared to tie the match with little time remaining by heading in the tying shot.

However, after the officials talked they disallowed the tying goal saying Robertson had held or pushed the defender while rising to head the ball and took the tying goal off the board.

There was still time left and the Vikings did keep firing but could not break through and Columbia River got the win. The emotion both teams played with boiled over in the postgame with a postgame yellow and red card being handed out to the Puyallup side. Initially there was no team handshake and the officials exited the field immediately. After the coaches met and talked with each other and the emotions subsided the teams then shook hands.

Despite the match again being non-league and has no impact on either teams postseason journies still to come, the teams still desperately want to win. But teams need to keep their poise as we are unsure of who received the red card but they are ineligible to play in ther next match. The lack of poise could indeed come into play in a match that is important.

Our Thorbeckes MVP of the match went to Columbia River’s Johnpaul Guzman for scoring the winning goal but his hustle and defense all over the field before he had to leave after suffering a leg injury led the Rapids. Other’s considered were Aedan Pena, Beckham Young, Jaydon Muodzi and Miles Mashek.

Had the Vikings won or pulled into a tie Zack Robertson would have led the choices with Braylon Bowie and Peyton Lewis in the mix.

Columbia River improves to 11-1-0 and will be on the road as they return to GSHL action next week at Ridgefield on Tuesday and then at Hockinson on Thursday both matches begin at 7p.

Puyallup gets back to SPSL league play after suffereing their 1st defeat dropping to 8-1-1 for the season. The Vikings are on the road Tuesday at Graham-Kapowsin and then host Curtis on Thursday both matches kick-off at 7:30p.

Link to watch the full game replay on the NFHS Network (subscription required)

ESN Postgame Show