W.F. West coach Allen Anderson is going to have to remember whatever halftime speech he used Tuesday during the Bearcats’ season-opening match at home against Aberdeen.
Coming out of the break with a scoreless tie, Cody Pennington and Angel Hernandez scored back-to-back goals in the opening minute, each in the span of less than a minute, to power the Bearcats to a 3-1 non-league victory.
Pennington scored in the 41st minute off an assist from Antheny Leal, followed by Angel Hernandez’ goal, also in the 41st minute, assisted by Pennington, to put the Bearcats up 2-0 in the blink of an eye. W.F. West coach Allen Anderson said he doesn’t think Bobcat defenders even touched the ball once during that opening minute of play.
“Whatever I said at the half must have worked,” Anderson said. “That was pretty exciting.”
Leal scored again in the 52nd minute on a corner kick to put the Bearcats up 3-0 with some stellar dribbling around three of four Bobcat defenders. Aberdeen got its lone goal in the 65th minute to close out the scoring.
Bearcat sophomore keeper Hayden Sciera notched six saves on the night in his first-ever high school match, while W.F. West outshot Aberdeen 10-7.
“He had a couple really great saves for us,” Anderson said. “Aberdeen was a state team two years ago. They’re traditionally very strong.”
W.F. West (1-0) returns to action when it travels to Shelton on Friday for another non-league match.
Rochester used two quick goals in the opening 10 minutes of play to cruise to a 6-2 non-league victory over visiting Centralia Tuesday.
It’s the second-straight victory to start the season for the Warriors, their best start in five years, after coming off a 7-1 season-opening victory over Montesano on Saturday.
“I’ve been very fortunate this year,” Rochester coach Matt Ashton said. “We have a lot of returning players. It’s nice to get a good start.”
Alexis Castillo-Corona scored the opening goal of the game for the Warriors in the second minute, assisted by Jamison Cody, followed by Erik Vazquez-Valentine’s unassisted goal in the eighth minute. Vazquez-Valentine scored again from an assist by Levi Jennings in the 22nd minute, then Manny Baires-Morales found the back of the net two minutes later to give Rochester a 4-0 lead at the half.
Castillo-Corona nabbed his second goal of the night in the 63rd minute and Owen Hahn, assisted by Vazquez-Valentine, finished out the scoring with a goal in the 78th minute.
Centralia was playing a bit shorthanded with four players out due to ineligibility and was forced to play with four freshmen on the field at point in the match.
Tiger Leo Perez scored Centralia’s first goal in the 10th minute, and the Tigers scored again in the 62nd minute.
“We’re not young but tonight we were young,” said Centralia coach Henry Gallanger, who is in his first season taking over the Tigers’ boys program. “It was a great learning experience and a great way to get some lessons in; not just for them but for me, too.”
Centralia (0-1) travels to Yelm on Thursday for a non-league match and Rochester (2-0) travels to Black Hills for a non-league match on Friday.
