As the saying goes, ignorance is bliss.
Or it can be the key to success, as in the case of the Heritage boys soccer team.
Last week, the Timberwolves did something they’ve never done before — beat Camas.
But not knowing Heritage’s past history may have helped the Timberwolves, senior Spencer Clark said.
“Honestly, a lot of the young guys came in with no fear,” Clark said. “They didn’t have any of those precursors of ‘we haven’t beaten Camas in 20 years.’ They just went out and did it. And that’s the mentality we have now.”
Juniors Justin Cibart and Julian Bojorquez teamed up on the first goal, and Clark assisted freshman Kevin Rodriguez on the second as Heritage tallied a 2-0 win over the Papermakers.
It was perhaps the biggest win in program history, although some of the younger Timberwolves didn’t realize it at the time.
“It’s a different world for us to be in,” coach Bryan Housley said. “Honestly, looking down the sideline, I’m not sure we really knew how to react. It’s one of those things that we don’t want to get too cocky, but it’s also one of those things that we should celebrate.”
Heritage has never advanced to the bi-district playoffs in Housley’s six years as head coach. In 2015, the Timberwolves went 0-11-1 in league, 2-8-2 in 2016 and 3-5 last year.
But the Timberwolves head into the final week of league play 4-2 in the 4A Greater St. Helens League, one point behind first-place Skyview. Heritage faces Skyview at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Kiggins Bowl before ending the regular season Thursday against Union.
Two wins, and the Timberwolves are league champions. Two losses, and their season could be over.
Maybe it’s that fact that kept the Timberwolves from getting too excited about their big win last Tuesday.
“For me the biggest thing I saw from this team that I haven’t seen in previous years is focus,” Clark said. “We were just super focused for the week before (the Camas game), especially that week when we had three games in one week.”
Junior defender Antonio Garcia added: “We’re just going to take these games one game at a time. … We can’t worry about winning league or qualifying for state. Just focus in on winning the game we are playing.”
Heritage opened the season scoring a lot of goals, with senior Julian Bojorquez leading the way. The Timberwolves also gave up a few goals.
But when opponents starting focusing their defense on Bojorquez, Housley had to change things up.
For the stretch run of league play, he moved Bojorquez to the defensive end of the field. The change has resulted in back-to-back shutout wins, and three wins in Heritage’s last four.
“Offensively, he was just getting man-marked by two to three guys every time,” Housley said “And he’s too good of a talent to just get marked and get frustrated. He already has three assists from the back.”
And there is also the play of senior goalkeeper Robbie Meadors, an all-league receiver on the Heritage football team who will play college football next fall at Simon Fraser University.
In his first year playing high school soccer, Meadors recorded nine saves in the shutout win over Camas.
“He’s reminded us several times that we cut him his freshman year,” Housley said.
That’s right. After playing soccer from age six through middle school, Meadors tried out for the Heritage soccer team as a freshman and got cut.
Meadors turned his attention to focusing on football, getting bigger and stronger. As a junior, Housley tried to get Meadors to return to soccer. Finally this spring, some friends on the soccer team convinced Meadors to turn out for soccer.
He’s glad he did. He’s helped anchor the Heritage defense, and provide some senior leadership and perspective.
“I talked to Coach last week and asked if I could talk to the team after practice,” Meadors said. “I just wanted to tell them that I’ve been around four years, stayed at Heritage all four years. I’ve lost a lot, but I’ve won some. … For me and this team to be so close to something so special would be great. It would help our school tremendously. And it would be a big step for us to move on to having a winning culture.”
Winning seasons are not something teams at Heritage have been able to experience often in recent years.
The last time Heritage qualified for state in a team sport was five years ago, when the baseball team reached the state quarterfinals. Since then, even making it to the bi-district playoffs has been rare at Heritage.
“It can be so hard for a kid to want to play but think ‘what’s the purpose if we’re going to lose every game,’ ” Housley said. “It’s hard to change that culture. I think Heritage as a whole over the last couple of years has done a really good job (of changing that).”
The win over Camas was a big win. But the Timberwolves know there are bigger games ahead.
“You want to be screaming like you just won the World Cup,” Housley said. “But I think in reality, they’re in a groove and you want to say ‘OK, one team down, two more to go.’ ”
Tim Martinez is the assistant sports editor/prep editor for The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4538, tim.martinez@columbian.com or follow him on Twitter @360TMart.
