Only a freshman, Philomath High’s Sammy Hernandez has made his mark already this season not only on his own team but in the Oregon West Conference against some of the best competition in Class 4A.
In the 71st minute Tuesday afternoon on the home pitch, Hernandez connected from 30 yards on a ball that sailed beyond the reach of the Cascade’s goalkeeper and broke a scoreless tie. Philomath (7-4 overall, 5-3 Oregon West) then guided the ship home in a 1-0 victory that the coach believes at the very least will qualify the Warriors for a play-in game.
“This was our seventh win, which should put us in,” PHS coach Dave Ellis said. “If we can get a win against Newport, we should host a play-in game. If you’d offered me that before the season I would have snatched your hand off. I mean, we’re definitely improved from last year and we’re moving forward.”
It wasn’t the first time that Hernandez had connected from that far out.
“Sammy Hernandez practices every shot,” Ellis said. “I have known the kid since he was like 8. Sammy is a special player. Even when he’s playing bad, he can pull something magical out like that.”
Cascade (2-10, 1-7) had its share of ball possession but was never able to get off very many shots. The Warriors, meanwhile, created more chances but had issues trying to finish.
“We started off pretty slow and then after halftime, we changed things up a little bit and were more focused and got that goal,” PHS junior Lukas Hernandez said. “I think if we just stay focused and play relaxed throughout the game, then we should be fine. We’re playing really good — some halves not as well as others but we come back stronger.”
In the second half, the scoreless tie continued as the Warriors missed on more opportunities. Freshman Dreyton Nuno had a couple of chances and junior Caleb Babcock took a well-placed corner kick by senior Silas Pittman and missed on a header that was caught by the keeper.
“We were creating chances, we just weren’t making the right decisions in the final third and not finishing our opportunities,” Ellis said. “We could’ve scored three or four in the first half and we just didn’t.”
Cascade wasn’t able to muster up much offense all afternoon against the Warrior D.
“Jake (McGaughy) had what, two saves the whole game, maybe three?” Ellis said. “Everything that went wrong was our own problem and not anything they did to us.”
Seconds after taking a 1-0 lead, Philomath nearly scored again on a pass from sophomore Jacob Hernandez to Sammy Hernandez. Perhaps the closest one to not go in occurred in the 38th minute when Jacob Hernandez barely missed to the right of the net.
Cascade had a shot at the end to tie the match. In the 79th minute on a sequence of events following a free kick, Babcock made a key defensive play with a header to clear the box. Then in the final seconds, Cascade freshman Julian Cabrera threatened with a shot toward the far post but it was going to miss wide right — McGaughy diving for the stop as a precaution.
The Warriors will now get ready for a road trip to North Marion Thursday and the regular-season home finale against Newport Oct. 29.
“We’ve got to stay focused and I’ve got to control the back,” Hernandez said when asked what the key will be in the team’s final two games. “You’ve just got to keep disturbing up top and making chances happen and looking for those shots on goal. I think we should make these next two games really close and hopefully come up with two wins.”
