Embattled in a scoreless tie at halftime against visiting Philomath Thursday evening in an Oregon West Conference boys soccer match, No. 2 North Marion struck for two goals a minute apart in the second half and went on to a 2-0 victory.
The Warriors (7-5 overall, 5-4 Oregon West) will close the regular season Tuesday with a home appearance against Newport, a match that could determine which of those two teams host a play-in game on Nov. 2. The game is scheduled for a 3:30 p.m. start.
The Oregon School Activities Association playoff qualification model gives the four highest-ranked teams that did not earn automatic berths home games for the play-in round. The Philomath-Newport winner— those teams as of Friday morning were ranked No. 13 and No. 15, respectively — appears to be in position to snag one of those home game slots. The loser of the game could end up going on the road depending on how the final rankings shake out. In addition, league matchups in a play-in game are avoided and distance traveled also become factors when the matchups are determined.
Stayton and North Marion, the top two teams in the Oregon West and the top two teams overall in the OSAA rankings, have clinched automatic berths for the playoffs.
In Thursday’s game at North Marion, the Warriors played well on defense in the first half to keep the game scoreless. But the Huskies scored on a deflected cross from 25 yards in the 50th minute and then quickly added another goal.
“On the offensive kickoff, we overextended immediately trying to get the goal back,” PHS coach Dave Ellis said, adding that the defense got spread out over 80 yards. “North Marion picked us apart with quick passes and runs” with the goal by junior Marcos Mejia Nolasco occurring within one minute of the kickoff.
“We had several chances after that,” Ellis said. “Silas (Pittman) had a header off the post, Jacob (Hernandez) had a great shot smothered by their goalkeeper and Caleb (Babcock) had a header from a corner stopped at the line by their goalkeeper.”
Overall, Ellis said it was a good game with Philomath just experiencing a bit of bad luck.
The upcoming game Tuesday against Newport will be Philomath’s Senior Day game.
