The Wilsonville boys soccer team did not dominate the 2023 regular season, nor did they dominate their league. In fact, the #13 seeded squad finished 3rd in their conference, and going into the playoffs, expectations were low for a team who finished 6-7-1 in the regular season.
In the first round, Wilsonville would square off against the Woodburn Bulldogs, and with strong play from GK Diego Macoco – Lopez Wilsonville shut out the #4-seeded Bulldogs en route to a 2-0 victory. In the second round, Wilsonville again played great defense and more fantastic goalkeeping, shutting out the #5 seeded Corvallis Spartans and coming away with the 1-0 win.
With Wilsonville playing lights-out defense with goaltending that was quite literally perfect through the first two rounds and an offense that was doing just enough to put Wilsonville over the top, the Wildcats turned their eyes to a semi-final matchup against Hood River Valley.
The Eagles had taken down the Wildcats in league play by a score of 2-3 and were in the semis as big underdogs as well. Hood River had traveled to the #1 seeded Crescent Valley Raiders and beat them in overtime. With Hood River being the #8 seed, expectations for the Eagles were not soaring by any means coming into the playoffs.
With both of these teams trying to keep the Cinderella run alive for a chance to move on to the state championship game, Wilsonville traveled to Hood River for the biggest match of the year. Tied 1-1 heading into the final few minutes, it looked like anyone’s game before Hood River scored with just 5 minutes left to play.
Wilsonville was unable to respond and fell to their league rivals 2-1, Caleb Green had this to say about the final few minutes: “It was brutal to get scored on in the final few minutes, everything kind of fell apart, and we had to scramble we weren’t able to put one in the back of the net”
Obviously, the end goal is to win a state championship, but this run that Wilsonville put together in the first week of November will forever be remembered by these Wildcats. “Turning the season around was something that not many would have expected, while the season didn’t end as we wanted, we still accomplished something great together as a team,” is what Senior Jack Miller commented after the loss.
Though the clock struck midnight on the Wildcats’ soccer season, it was such a great experience to watch a team get that deep into the playoffs with very small expectations to begin with.