The Crook County Cowboys got back on track Wednesday with a 4-2 victory over The Dalles in Tri-Valley Conference soccer action.
The win came after a loss last week at Madras, and a lackluster performance Monday in a 2-1 win over Gladstone.
“Scoring first really set the way for us going cruising in the first half,” said senior defender Andres Rosales. “I feel like scoring the first goal is really important with this team. It just sets the tempo.”
The Cowboys opened the scoring in the match's 24th minute on a goal from Jaycob Miller. Just over a minute later the team scored again, this time on an Eli Oelkers goal. With 10 minutes left in the half the Cowboys struck again, this time on a goal from Gabriel Lopez.
That's the way the score stayed for the remainder of the half. Crook County scored again, early in the second half, this time on a goal from Noah Oelkers.
However, The Dalles tried to battle back. Hulises Najera scored a goal for the Riverhawks midway through the half. Although it was a back and forth game the entire match, The Dalles was able to exert more pressure on Crook County in the second half, finally scoring their second goal with less than 30 seconds left in the match.
“They got a couple of goals, but they are a good team,” Crook County head coach Bryan Housley told his team following the match. “They have probably one of the best players in the league, that number 10, (Hulises Najera) he can play. You guys really showed that resilience and that Cowboy love today. You know what, we won't even really talk about those two goals, it's a bummer, but both of those could have been avoided. Those are things that we know we can fix. Shutouts are nice, but they are not necessary, understand that. It's all about who scores the most goals, and again, we scored first and were never down.”
With the win the Cowboys improved to 5-1 in conference play and 8-1-1 overall, while The Dalles fell to 3-3 in league and 7-3 overall. Perhaps more importantly the win virtually eliminates The Dalles from league championship contention. In addition, despite the previous loss to Madras the Cowboys are currently in first place in the conference, due to their higher power ranking than the White Buffalos. Madras is 4-0-2 in league play, and are fifth in the OSAA power rankings, while the Cowboys are second in the rankings.
“We still feel like we did amazing, even with those two goals,” Rosales said. "It was just little mistakes that led to those goals, the smallest mistakes. We are making history.”
Crook County has scored 32 goals so far this season, while giving up just nine. The Cowboys are back in action on Monday in a 6 p.m. match at Molalla, 1-3-2, 3-4-2. The team returns home for a Wednesday match against Estacada, 1-3-2, 2-5-3, with game time set for 4:30 p.m.
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