By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

STAYTON, Ore.–  When the night started, there was an sense of excitement for the Stayton Boys Soccer team on being the first Stayton High School Sports Team to utilize the new turf field on campus.

“I like it,” said Jose “Chivo” Gomez. “I like both grass and turf but I kind of like turf because it’s even.  There’s nothing to complain about.”

But, when the game started, it was a whole different story.

Coming out of halftime, with the score all tied up at one in a relatively quite game, the game spiced up in a hurry.

Aggressive game play was met by the referee whistle as Molalla broke the tie with a Gavin Barrett 57^th minute goal for a 2-1 lead.  It was Barrett’s second goal of the game.

The game’s aggressiveness continued as Gomez was fouled in the box to set up a Penatly Kick in the 61^st minute, that he connected on to draw both teams even at two.

Levi Summers, who scored the opening goal for Stayton in the 35^th minute, describes the intensity of the second half.

“It was a really tough game for us because everyone really want to beat us,” said Summers.  “(Molalla) came here and that’s all they want to do is just win.

“It was really tough for us because we came out kind of flat in the first half and I think that second half is when we actually realize that we actually need to put some pressure on them or else they were going to kind of take the game over.”

The environment of the game was playoff like, the Indians wanted to beat the Eagles team that were in the last two State Title games and have won the last six Oregon West Conference Titles.

The battle roared on, one would drive on the other, the others goalie would make the save.

With seconds remaining in the game and deep into Stayton territory, Molalla had a chance to break the tie and upset the Eagles.

But like in the Henley Semi-Final game last November, the Eagles made two crucial blocks to deny the Indians from upsetting them on their new turf as the two teams tied two-all.

Head Coach Chris Shields admits that the two teams were evenly matched even outside the scoreboard and thought his team played pretty well nonetheless.

“I personally thought the two teams were pretty evenly matched when it came to physicality,” said Shields.  “There not huge, there kind of in the same boat as we are with the grades.  They played the way they wanted to play, they came out and moved the ball around and we kind of backed off and played that style, trying to absorb and eventually trying to break out from there.

“But I thought overall, we as a team played well and I thought it could’ve gone either way.  I thought both teams were evenly matched.”

One thing is for certain, it’ll be quite a battle if these two teams meet in the playoffs this season, but that’s a long ways away.

At 2-0-1, Shields has enjoyed how his young team has competed against three 2015 playoff teams in McLoughlin, Seaside and now Molalla as they enter one last preseason game against Lebanon Tuesday evening at home.

And though they aren’t overlooking the Warriors, they know it’s an opportunity to work out any rough edges before they start league play against Philomath September 20.

“With Lebanon, they’re a 5A team.  I just want to make sure we go into it with everyone being healthy and we don’t have any issues,” said Shields.  “I think it’ll be a good opportunity for us to have a little more easier game before we get into the Philomath’s and Cascade which is our first two opponents in league.”

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Game Photos (Pictures By Jeremy McDonald)