5/6/2026
The Evergreen 2A Boys Soccer conference is the latest who got too cute for their own good. The league has long been a league who don’t have ties and go to 2 golden goal OT’s before a PK shoot-out to determine wins in all of their league matches.
But a few years ago the idea of rewarding teams who take the longest to lose a match a point so they actually have a point system in a league that does not have ties. The system is you get 3 points for a win unless you go to PK’s then you earn just 2 points. The losing team in a shootout gets 1 point.
Going into the final night of league play, Tumwater was 6-3 as was Aberdeen at 6-3. Centralia and WF West were each 5-4 and the 4 teams played each other on the final night with Tumwater at WF West and Centralia at Aberdeen. So there was a real chance for a 4-way tie for 1st with all finishing at 6-4 if WF West and Centralia both won.
This would have set off the multiple tie-breakers typical in team sports like head-to-head, point differential and others down to a play-off or even a coin flip. All 4 teams would be looking to see if even ahead they needed to score another goal for the goal differential tie-breaker or that they needed to cinch down their defense and not give up a late goal. All sorts of scenarios would have created a crazy finish to league play with all 4 teams likely to still have a chance to win the League title in certain scenarios. The outcome of course leads to the important seeding into the district tournament that begins on Thursday with the play-in games.
But instead, two of the positions were already determined prior to the games with Tumwater clinching the League Championship losing more than anyone else in PK’s to pick up extra points and built a point total that could not be tied or topped. So the T-Birds win or lose were going to be Champs. Their opponent, WF West who with a win, would tie Tumwater at 6-4 but they could not finish better than 4th no matter the outcome. Both teams already knew who their next opponent would be with the Bearcats traveling to Hudson’s Bay on Thursday and Tumwater hosting RA Long on Saturday. So the match where a team could tie the 1st place team in the final match meant absolutely nothing.
The Centralia at Aberdeen match was simple, whoever won was 2nd and would host Ridgefield on Saturday. The loser would be 3rd and get to host the play-in game on Thursday against Woodland. The Bobcats won to take 2nd and the Tigers are 3rd.
Let this sink in, here are the final standings in a league that does not play to a tie, all are league wins and losses:
EVCO 2A Final Standings
1st Tumwater 6-4
2nd Aberdeen 7-3
3rd Centralia 5-5
4th WF West 6-4
5th Shelton 5-5
6th Black Hills 2-8
The 2nd and 4th place teams also play in the district bracket with Columbia River who are the defending State Champs and are 7th in the RPI much higher than the rest of the GSHL 2A and EVCO 2A with Hockinson next at 13, Ridgefield 18, RA Long 26, Woodland 35 and Hudson’s Bay 36.
The top RPI EVCO team is Aberdeen at 15, then WF West at 24, Centralia 26 and Tumwater is 27.
Our crew weighed in with an opinion piece on this system yesterday and why questions why soccer continues to make it as hard as possible to follow their sport. You can read our piece on this link
Let’s be clear about this we are unsure how all other leagues figure out who gets to represent their leagues and districts at the State tournament. Many will blame the WIAA but a reminder the WIAA is a bottom up organization and they have limited power to step into league and district rules. The WIAA is in charge of the State tournaments and award each district the number of allocations that are available to get into the state tournaments.
The WIAA does not have the authority to step in and tell a league or district how to award their play-off spots to their teams. If a district wanted to draw the teams out of a hat the WIAA would not be able to stop them from doing so under the rules of the WIAA organization.
This is 100% on the leagues and districts. In our opinion piece we urge soccer as a whole sport to come together and decide what set of rules they all will play, whether it’s a 3 points for a win and 1 for a tie or wins and losses where regular season matches go to OT and PK’s. Most of us trying to follow your sport just would like to know whose in 1st or who can finish where when the final match of league you have a huge chance at a 4-way tie for first.
EVCO 2A Final Scores from Tuesday, May 5
Aberdeen 6, Centralia 1
WF West 2, Tumwater 1
Black Hills 3, Shelton 2
GSHL 2A Final Scores from Tuesday, May 5
Columbia River 2, RA Long 0
Hockinson 8, Mark Morris 1
Ridgefield 4, Hudson’s Bay 1
Woodland 3, Washougal 0
GSHL 2A Final Standings
1st Columbia River 13-1
2nd Hockinson 11-3
3rd Ridgefield 10-4
4th RA Long 8-6
5th Hudson’s Bay 6-8
6th Woodland 6-8
7th Washougal 2-12
8th Mark Morris 0-14
District 4 Boys Soccer Bracket Link
Thursday, May 7
Play-In Games (Winners to Districts, Losers Out)
6pm Woodland at Centralia
7pm WF West at Hudson’s Bay
Saturday, May 9
District Opening Round (Winners to Semifinals, losers to consolation)
12pm RA Long at Tumwater
12pm Ridgefield at Aberdeen
TDB winner of Woodland/Centralia at Hockinson
TDB winner of WF West/Hudson’s Bay at Columbia River
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