HS Boys Soccer: WF West Uses Defense, Early PK to Defeat Tumwater

4/18/23

WF West 1, Tumwater 0

(Chehalis, WA) Over the last couple of years, Tumwater and WF West have played nothing but close matches when the two soccer programs meet. On Tuesday night, it was more of the same as the two squads battled it out. A win for Tumwater would put them in a real good place to take second in the EvCo 2A. For the Bearcats, a win would move them into a tie with Tumwater for second with the T-Birds still having to play undefeated Aberdeen for a second time. The result would be the one the Bearcats hoped for as an early PK proved to be enough for WF West to earn the 1-0 win.

After an early scare for WF West on a missed clearance, the Bearcats dominated most of the opening half. The Bearcats got on the scoreboard in the 11th minute when a foul inside the 18-yard box earned Cameron Kunz a penalty kick. The senior defender fired a rocket into the back of the net to make it 1-0 Bearcats.

For the rest of the half, WF West did put pressure on Tumwater keeper AJ Heichelbech but couldn’t get anything by the very aggressive goalie. Heichelbech was outside of the 18 quite often to help out his back line and combined the Tumwater defense didn’t let the Bearcats add on. Tumwater’s offense never really got going in the opening 40 minute. WF West’s defense continued to be the strength of the Bearcat squad and between Kunz, Charles Comisky, Noe Caperon, Josh Silva, Tyson Castillo and keeper Hayden Sciera, Tumwater was held scoreless with very few opportunities headed into halftime.

In the second half, Tumwater started getting more comfortable on offense. They were able to get more pressure on the Bearcat defense with Gabe O’Connor and Levi Tellers leading the charge. The match got more and more physical in the second half which really slowed the match down with penalties being called. Because of this, neither team could really seize momentum. Gavin Cuoio had some breakaway opportunities, but Tumwater couldn’t solve the Bearcat puzzle. AJ Heichelbech stopped a late PK to give the T-Birds a chance, but the WF West defense held on to earn the 1-0 win.

Our Thorbeckes MVP for WF West was Cameron Kunz who captained the defense en route to a shutout while scoring the lone goal of the match on the 11th minute PK.

With the victory, WF West moves to 7-4 overall and 6-3 in league play. They will take on Centralia on Friday at 7pm in a match you can see here on ESN. Tumwater drops to 6-5 overall and 6-3 in league play as they prepare for a trip to Shelton on Friday at 7pm as well.

To catch the entire replay of this match, click the link below.

https://www.nfhsnetwork.com/events/wf-west-high-school-chehalis-wa/gambd995e991f