The go-ahead goal was scored with under 17 minutes left. Collin Wong made a run up the left wing setting a ping-pong sequence in the goal mouth that ended with Wheelon finishing off a ball from Ashton Rimer.
Matt Beaulaurier put Ferris ahead in the third minute. Beaulaurier took advantage of some confusion in Union’s defense, beat Union goalkeeper Pasha Hashemi to a free kick that was looped into the penalty area from 40 yards away, deflecting the ball past into the goal.
“After giving up that early goal, the fight and grit that the kids showed to fight there way out of that early hole, I couldn’t be more proud of them,” Union coach Kelcey Burris said.
Wheelon equalized in the 28th minute, drilling a 30-yard free kick from straight away that skipped along the turf and inside the right post.
From that point on, the Titans were the assertive team. And after halftime, that assertiveness turned into momentum that Ferris couldn’t match.
Foster, a senior defender, put to rest any uncertainty about the outcome by scoring with his head as the clock ticked under five minutes. He converted from about 10 yards out off a Collin Wong cross.
The fact that Hashemi, the Union goalkeeper, finished with only one save reflects the control the Titans had for most of the match.
Union, which won a boys soccer state tournament match for the first time on Wednesday at Davis of Yakima, hopes to continue following the path Skyview took a year ago. In 2012 Skyview won a boys soccer state tournament match for the first time, then won three more to claim the Class 4A state title. Like that Storm team, these Titans did not win the Greater St. Helens League title.
“We’ve been knocking on the door for many years,” Burris said. “I couldn’t be more proud of all our kids, and of all the hard work and preparation they put in. Off to the next game we go.”
