Hawks End Bearcats’ Season in Shootout

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The W.F. West boys soccer team saw its season end in one of the cruelest ways spots has to offer Thursday, falling in a penalty shootout to Hockinson after drawing 1-1 with the Hawks in a 2A district loser-out, winner-to-State match.

“This is a tough way to go,” WFW coach Allen Anderson said. “As a coach, this is not my first loss in a PK shootout; I’ve lost two state championships in shootouts. I’m kind of numb to it, to be honest… (but) they are not.”

Eighty minutes couldn’t separate the Bearcats from the Hawks, after both teams notched goals in the first half and kept the other off the scoreboard in the second.

Adrian Jaimes gave W.F. West the lead out of nothing in the 15th minutes on a shot from well outside the penalty area, putting the hosts ahead on their first real chance of the game.

But the bulk of the chances went Hockinson’s way, and the Hawks finally converted in the 38th minute to level things up going into halftime.

The Hockinson pressure continued in the second half, and while the W.F. West defense dealt with most of the danger, keeper Hayden Sciera made the crucial saves when needed, including a diving effort toward the 70th minute to just barely tip a high shot off the crossbar and out.

The Hawks spent just about the full 80 minutes of regulation on the front foot, limiting the Bearcats to scant chances in counterattacks, and none that close to landing.

“It was hard to get our rhythm today,” Anderson said. “Hockinson did a really good job of pressuring us immediately in the middle third of the field.”

That began to change as the second half wound into stoppage time, and again in the second portion of extra time, but all of W.F. West’s chances fizzled out before it could really test the Hockinson goalkeeper.

“We were close,” Anderson said. “Some nights it’s just like that in soccer. Close just doesn’t quite count.”

That sent the match to the spot, in front of a raucous crowd a Bearcat Stadium that vacated its seats to crowd the railing around the track to be as close to the action as possible. W.F. West’s first attempt was saved to put Hockinson ahead, but Sciera came back to make a diving save to his right, and Cameron Kunz buried his attempt to level the shootout at 1-1.

On the next Hockinson attempt, Sciera got a trailing foot to the ball, but not enough to keep it from going into the net. W.F. West’s next shot went over the bar, and with the advantage, the Hawks buried two more to win it.

“PKs are one of the hardest things to replicate in practice, because how do your really replicate that pressure?” Anderson said. “ No matter how much you work on it — we even dedicated a full half-hour before training yesterday to just PKs — you can’t replicate that pressure in the moment. It’s unfortunate. 

“Hayden did a great job. He did his job, he made the one save that we needed, we just unfortunately missed a couple ourselves, and that’s all she wrote.”

W.F. West finishes its season with 9-6-1 record, after finishing second in the 2A EvCo. The Bearcats are set to graduate 14 seniors.

“They fought hard, they had a good season, they had a good run,” Anderson said. “It’s disappointing that we’re not moving on, but nevertheless, I’m very proud of the team.”