Warriors Edged in Toe-to-Toe Battle With T-Birds

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Rochester and Tumwater played to a scoreless stalemate through 51 minutes and carried a 2-2 tie into overtime where the Thunderbirds came out victorious in the second period of OT with a 2-1 victory on Friday.

Warriors’ Alexis Castillo-Corona kicked off the scoring with a PK goal in the 52nd minute. Tumwater’s Gavin Cuoio responded in the 66th minute with the equalizer to make it 1-1.

Erik Vazquez-Valentine helped Rochester retake the lead in the 76th minute with a goal assisted by Castillo-Corona. The Warriors nearly held on for the win but Tumwater’s Zach Schmidt connected on the equalizer just two minutes later to send the game into overtime.



The two squads both went scoreless in the first five minutes of overtime before Tumwater notched its second goal with three minutes left in the second period of OT to secure the win.

“Super proud of the boys,” Rochester coach Matt Ashton said. “To battle with the No. 1 team in the league the way we did, after Tumwater was coming off a loss to W.F. West… We gave them everything we had. We’re playing good soccer right now.

Rochester has two more regular-season games left, both league matches, and will need to win at least one of them to secure a district playoff berth or play-in bid. The Warriors first head to Shelton on Tuesday.