See the ball, hit the ball: Tahoma outpoints Bellarmine in 4A district soccer championship
For all the dazzling moves in a soccer player’s toolkit, the hours spent on perfecting footwork or mastering a new move that might translate into creating enough space for an open shot in a game, sometimes the simplest approach is the best — See the ball, hit the ball.
When a clearance attempt from a Bellarmine Prep player bounced up to Tahoma senior midfielder Pablo Flores in the 24th minute of the 4A District 3/4 boys soccer championship game at Sparks Stadium in Puyallup on Thursday night, Flores kept things simple, crushing a volley shot into the left corner of the goal and giving Tahoma an early 1-0 lead.
“It was right in front of me and I just hit it, I just straight up hit it,” Flores said. “It kind of bounced in front of me, so it was a volley. I just hit it and it started curving, I saw it curving a little bit to the left and the keeper couldn’t get it. We celebrated and locked back in.
“You just gotta hit it. That’s what I’ve learned playing soccer for 12 years.”
In the 31st minute, Tahoma’s Caleb Wicker dispossessed a Bellarmine defender just feet away from the Bellarmine goal and was then fouled in the box. Ignacio “Nacho” Brandan converted the penalty kick to extend Tahoma’s lead to 2-0. Tahoma (16-1-1) comfortably hung on from that point forward, cruising to a 2-0 win and the district title.
Both goals were the result of Tahoma putting relentless pressure on the Bellarmine back line in the first half.
“It was such a big focus,” Brandan said. “As a team, we watch film, we like to study our opponents and like to see how they play, how they don’t like playing. We put them in an awkward situation, which we knew what we were doing and we got a penalty. I was lucky to put it away.”
To Flores, it came down to desire at the end of the day.
“We wanted this game bad,” he said. “We wanted to win this game, so we just pressed from the beginning. Our coach told us from the beginning to press. We didn’t stop working that whole 80 minutes. It was just a great game and I’m really proud of my boys.”
The tournament saw Tahoma tear through the 4A South Puget Sound League, beating three 4A SPSL teams en route to the district title — a 2-0 win over Sumner in the opening round, 2-1 win over Puyallup in the semifinal and the 2-0 win over Bellarmine in the championship game. Beating some of the best competition the 4A SPSL has to offer should provide plenty of confidence for the Bears heading into the 4A state tournament.
“We would like to have as much confidence as we can have,” Brandan said. “We’ve gotta come into the state championship with confidence and integrity. We’ve gotta keep battling. We haven’t won anything yet.”
