Pasco High faces off with rival Chiawana in this WA power meet Thursday in Tri-Cities
What most soccer fans thought might happen, did, when Pasco and Chiawana both won their second-round matches in the Class 4A District 8 tournament over the weekend.
Top-seeded Pasco took care of visiting Central Valley 3-0, while Riley Dodson’s Chiawana squad went on the road and took down Lewis & Clark 4-2.
So what does that mean?
The Riverhawks visit Matt Potter’s Bulldogs at 7 p.m. Thursday at Edgar Brown Stadium for the district championship.
The two teams have split a pair of regular-season matchups, with Chiawana winning 3-1, and then Pasco taking the second matchup 1-0. In both cases, the visitors were the victors.
How good are these two squads?
Chiawana is ranked No. 2 in the WIAA’s latest Class 4A RPI rankings, while Pasco is right behind at No. 3. Only Camas is ranked higher than these two squads.
What’s at stake is a berth to the 4A state tournament.
For the loser, they will have to bounce back to beat whoever comes through the losers’ bracket for the district’s second state tournament berth.
Expect a rather large crowd at Edgar Brown on Thursday.
▪ Hermiston has already earned a 3A state tournament berth with its second-round 10-1 win over Kennewick.
The Bulldogs will host Mead at 5 p.m. Thursday, May 9, at Kennison Field for the district title.
▪ Southridge meets Kennewick at 6 p.m., Thursday, May 9, at Lampson Stadium in a loser-out matchup.
The 3A tournament has three state berths available, which means whoever wins between Southridge or Kennewick, that team will be involved in a state play-in game.
College basketball
Nicole Wertenberger (Kamiakin) finished her girls prep basketball career in March by averaging 17.81 points for the Braves.
She also helped lead her team to the state 4A tournament in the Tacoma Dome.
Now, the guard is moving on to the college level. In late April, Wertenberger signed a letter of intent to play for the Hawaii Pacific University women’s basketball team, starting in the fall.
Hawaii Pacific is an NCAA Division II school, located in Honolulu, and the Sharks play in the Pacific West Conference.
Hockey
Lukas Dragicevic turned 19 last month, and the Tri-City Americans defenseman has had an interesting last month or so.
Dragicevic, selected by the Seattle Kraken in the 2023 NHL Draft, signed a three-year entry-level contract with the Kraken, which was announced on March 28. It reportedly. Comes with an average annual value of $950,000, set to begin next season.
Then the Kraken sent him to its American Hockey League affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds, on an amateur tryout contract.
He played in three games with the Firebirds, collecting an assist.
Coachella Valley is in the midst of the AHL playoffs battling for the Calder Cup, and while Dragicevic is listed on the playoff roster, he hasn’t suited up yet.
The Firebirds are playing the Calgary Wranglers, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Flames.
On the Wranglers’ playoff roster is Dragicevic’s Tri-City Americans teammate, Parker Bell.
Bell competed his junior hockey career with the Ams in March. He had signed his NHL entry-level contract with the Flames back in September.
After Tri-City’s season ended in March, Bell was assigned to the Wranglers, where the forward played in two regular-season games. Like Dragicevic, Bell is on the Wranglers playoff roster but hasn’t suited up for a playoff game yet.
Evergreen Premier League soccer
The Tri-Cities Badgers got their inaugural Evergreen Premier League season off to a start on Saturday, losing to the visiting Spokane Shadow 6-4 at Fran Rish Stadium.
The Badgers are one of 12 teams in the EPL this season, and those 12 teams are divided into three conferences.
The Badgers will play in the East Conference with three teams from the Spokane area — the Shadow, the Spokane United and the Washington East Surf.
The North Conference consists of the Atletico Morelia Skagit, the Bellingham United, Cultures United out of Seattle, and the Everett Jets.
The South Conference will consist of the Olympia Artesians, Bremerton’s Oly Pen, the Vancouver Victory, and the Yakima United.
Badgers head coach Humberto Chavez and assistant coach Alessandro Llamas Ibarra have put together a strong squad that could vie for the EPL title.
The roster has a list of familiar faces, almost all of whom have played soccer in the Mid-Columbia: midfielder Nathan Alvarado (Kennewick, Walla Walla Community College), midfielder Julio Andrade (Pasco), defender Axel Arellano (Chiawana), defender Geovanni Carranza (Connell, CBC), forward Humberto Cervantes (Chiawana senior headed to CBC), forward Aymen Chagroun (Tunisia), forward Miguel Chavez (Pasco), midfielder Mike Chavez (Kennewick, CBC, Whitworth), forward Ahmed Colakovic (Southridge, CBC), goalkeeper Diego Cossio (Hanford, Seattle Pacific), defender Alonso Cruz (Othello, CBC), forward Jorge Cuevas (Prosser, Pacific Northwest Christian College), center back Ethan Fajardo (Grandview, CBC), forward Vicente Flores-Ruiz (Touchet, WWCC), forward Pablo Gil (Connell, CBC), defender Victor Godinez (Pasco), goalkeeper Dylan Isasi (CBC), defender Alfredo Jimenez (Chiawana senior headed to CBC), forward Fernando Lopez-Vega (Chiawana, Whitman), goalkeeper Aaron Lowry (Hanford, WWCC), defender Alex Martinez (Pasco High senior headed to CBC), midfielder Bryan Martinez (Pasco High senior headed to CBC), defender Erik Martinez (Grandview, CBC), midfielder Ronald Medrano (Costa Rica, Cal Poly SLO), goalkeeper Cameron Perron (Gala FC, England), midfielder Julian Reyes (CBC), defender Anthony Rodriguez (Mexico), midfielder Alex Sotelo (Kamiakin, WWCC, Germany), and defender Jonathan Valencia (Grandview, CBC).
Here is the rest of Tri-Cities’ 10-game schedule:
May 11, Atletico Morelia Skagit, Fran Rish Stadium, 4 p.m.
May 18, at Spokane United, TBA
June 1, at Washington East Surf, TBA
June 8, at Artesians, TBA
June 15, at Oly Pen, TBA
June 22, Spokane United, Fran Rish Stadium, 4 p.m.
June 30, Cultures United, Fran Rish Stadium, 4 p.m.
July 6, at Spokane Shadow, TBA
July 13, Washington East Surf, Fran Rish Stadium, 4 p.m.
Jeff Morrow is former sports editor for the Tri-City Herald.
