RIDGEFIELD — When teams know each other as well as the boys soccer clubs at Ridgefield and Hockinson do, the route to a goal is seldom fancy.
That was the case on Tuesday as the Spudders claimed the Class 2A Greater St. Helens League title on a late goal by Jason Osborn from a penalty-area scramble that earned Ridgefield a 1-0 win. The second win over the Hawks this season gave the Spudders (10-2 GSHL) the league championship, and means they could host as many as four postseason matches.
As the GSHL’s top entry into district play, Ridgefield will kick off the postseason with a home match at noon on Saturday against Aberdeen or W.F West. As the second seed into district, Hockinson, which lost twice to Ridgefield and finished 9-3 in league, will host the Evergreen Conference’s No. 3 entry at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Tuesday’s match at Ridgefield seemed destined for overtime until Osborn got to a loose ball near the penalty spot and scored with only 5:04 showing on the second-half clock.
The play started with Jalen Williams making a long throw toward the 18-yard box, Max Hauser was able to get to the ball and put enough on it to direct it into traffic where it bounced several times before landing in space for Osborn’s finish.
Osborn, a sophomore, guessed it was his fifth goal of the season. He knew it was big.
“I just followed it up and tried to take as hard a shot as I could,” Osborn said.
With few exceptions — among them an opening-minute shot from an angle by Hockinson’s Jake Roscoe that forced a save from Ridgefield goalkeeper Bryn Moloney — both defenses took away attacking space and won most of the 50-50 battles.
Hockinson’s Mitchell Pinney had three half-chances inside the final 20 minutes, the best of them when he beat a defender on the right wing then dribbled into the penalty area and shooting.
“They’re a very good team,” Ridgefield coach Brian Newman said of the Hawks. “We’ve seen this battle before. Each team knows how to play each other. It just went our way tonight.”
In the first half, Ridgefield worked to build an attack while Hockinson was most dangerous on counter-attacks. Hauser — one of three Ridgefield players with varsity experience at the start of the season along with Liam Knoeppel and Justin Stay — said the halftime discussion was that any goals were likely to come from free kicks or throw-ins.
“They were keying on us, calling us out by name and we were calling them out by name,” said Hauser of the familiarity between the teams. “It really did come down to one of those scrappy ones, because they keyed on us (defensively) really well.”
Hauser said he wasn’t sure how the ball got to Osborn because he was on the ground after battling for possession.
“Just trying to wreak havoc, really,” Hauser said. “When the ball is in there you just have to have the most desire. You’ve got to want to put away every half-chance. “
On Tuesday, Osborn took his chance to give Ridgefield a soccer league title.
