The Wilsonville boys soccer team qualified extremely late in the season to even make the state championship soccer bracket. Just a couple weeks after their qualification, against all odds, they would find themselves playing in the state semifinal contest.
The Wildcats entered the playoffs 6-7-1 after scheduling a rigorous pre-season schedule against some of the state’s best programs across all classifications. The Wildcats snuck into the playoffs after finishing 3rd in the NWOC league.
Some could say before the last three games of the season, it was looking to be a down year for the usual championship contenders year in and year out. Doubters would soon come to find out not to judge this squad by their record.
“No one believed we would even make it into the playoffs,” Senior goalkeeper Diego Macoco described. “I’m proud of how far our team came this season despite the rough start we had in the beginning.”
Proud, you could say, is somewhat of an understatement.
With the event nearly standing room only, the Wildcats walked into their round 1 matchup at Woodburn High, with nearly every fan rooting against them. Woodburn brought what Wilsonville soccer players would describe as a “football-like” atmosphere, which is rare for Oregon high school soccer.
Diego Macoco explained that the atmosphere and all of the heckling made them fight even harder.
The Wildcats capitalized on an early lead and ended up shocking the state and Woodburn community with a 2-1 win over 4th-ranked Woodburn.
What would come next was even more special.
Set to play another Mid-Willamette conference opponent in the 2nd round of the playoffs, the Wildcats would again come out on top against 5th ranked Corvallis, shocking the state yet again.
After fighting hard in the semi-final matchup, the Wildcats fell short to familiar league foe Hood River Valley, 2-1.
Senior backup goalkeeper Tyler Giron explained, “We knew we could beat that team, and we had higher expectations than where we ended up, but we have to accept the loss and just be happy with how hard we fought and how far we came.”
Although the Wildcats believed they were capable of going even further, the run they built was nothing short of spectacular.