In a relentless offensive attack that stressed ball possession and created numerous scoring opportunities, the Philomath High girls soccer team eased its way to a 5-0 victory Tuesday afternoon over visiting Stayton.
The Warriors (3-2-1 overall, 2-0 Oregon West) led just 2-0 at halftime despite a skill advantage that became obvious in the first five minutes of game action.
“Dominating the game is not just scoring a ton of goals but it’s keeping the ball and minimizing the opponent’s time on the ball,” PHS coach Mat Phelps said. “I thought we did a really good job of doing that today.”
Philomath and Stayton (1-4, 0-2) have played some exceptional games over the years with both programs putting playoff-quality squads on the pitch. The Eagles have been in a down cycle since their last postseason appearance in 2019, however, including a 1-27-1 record over the past two seasons heading into this fall.
“Even though we might know we’re going to beat them, we still want to play the best soccer we can,” Mooney said. “We don’t want to stoop our level of soccer down to them … you still want to come out hard.”
A big part of the strategy revolved around ball possession. And it’s a particular facet of the game that the Warriors have focused their attention on.
“It’s something that we’ve worked on the last two or three weeks,” Phelps said. “We were playing a little more direct at the beginning of the year and we’re like, ‘let’s work on keeping the ball.’”
Philomath had a significant number of scoring opportunities. In the first 20 minutes, Sophia Bauer, Ana Candanoza, Jordyn Hood, Natalie Dunn and Madyx Mooney all had shots to the left, right and over the net before officials called both teams off the field for a water break on a hot afternoon. Hood’s shot attempt in the 11th minute hit the crossbar.
In the 24th minute, senior Isabel Morales-Marquez finished from close range after a pass from Mooney. The goal confirmed the assumption that it would only be a matter of time before the Warriors came through for the lead.
Two minutes later, Kya Bolton put the ball in play with a corner kick and Maggie King scored in traffic from about 5 yards out.
The assault continued with Kya Bolton sending the ball in the middle on a few occasions, including on a couple of corner kicks. Morales-Marquez had a solid attempt in the 29th minute that was stopped by Stayton’s keeper. Petra Hernandez had a promising cross a few minutes later and Dunn took three corner kicks over a three-minute stretch late in the half that nearly produced but PHS had to settle for a 2-0 advantage at the break.
“We can clean up some of those chances, maybe make a couple of them into more high-quality chances and finishing … we could find the corner a little bit better,” Phelps said about the opportunities. “But overall, we created a ton of chances and that’s good.”
In the second half, it was much of the same. In the first five minutes, Mooney to Bauer to Hood just missed high. A few minutes later, Candanoza dribbled deep and passed to Bauer who missed high. In the 50th minute, the Warriors finally made it 3-0 on a Logan Cook goal, who finished in traffic with an assist by Bauer.
Two minutes later, King worked the ball out of the corner toward Bolton but she wasn’t able to get off a strong shot while falling. Morales-Marquez missed by about a foot high on another attempt a short time later. After the second-half water break, Philomath’s Annaleise Brown and King teamed up on a couple of chances that were close.
Perhaps the prettiest goal of the afternoon came in the 67th minute. Candanoza sent a ball from midfield just over Stayton’s defenders to find Bolton sprinting toward the net. The freshman finished from 8 yards for a 4-0 lead.
After a Dunn-to-Hernandez chance bounced off the goalkeeper and a follow by Morales-Marquez got away high, the Warriors scored their fifth goal in the 78th minute. On the play, Mooney buried the shot off a Bolton corner kick. Mooney nearly scored again in the final seconds on an open opportunity that ended wide right.
Philomath outshot the Eagles 48-1.
“We made good passes … we connected and made runs,” Mooney said about the game’s flow. “If we keep working hard in practice, I feel like we can come back and hopefully win league.”
The Warriors didn’t win their first until the fourth game into the season but has now outscored the last three opponents by a combined 17-0.
“I think this is a group that’s had to fight through some injuries and battle some really tough teams at the beginning of the year,” Phelps said. “We’re getting healthy now and we recognize that we can do a lot more than what we have done so far.”
Philomath hopes it can pick up where it left off with the Eagles with another home game Thursday. The Warriors will host Cascade at 4 p.m. on the PHS pitch.
