Gonzaga Prep Falls To Cascade, 4-0 Bullpups Had Great Season, But State Title Wasn’t To Be

Shortly before halftime of the boys State AAA soccer championship on Saturday, Cascade High School’s An Nuon turned and blew a kiss in the direction of Gonzaga Prep fans. He was immediately given a yellow card and sent to the bench.

But Nuon’s prelude to a kiss turned out to be the kiss of death for G-Prep, because immediately thereafter, Cascade’s Laeth Al-Rashid scored a header off a throw-in for a three-goal lead in what became a 4-0 victory over the Bullpups at Central Valley High.

Gonzaga’s Bullpups left off where they finished the night before in a 1-0 win over Decatur. They just couldn’t put the ball in the goal.

Five minutes into the game, G-Prep’s Joe Ascolese sailed a centering pass over the goal post. The play was an indicator of the offensive futility to come.

And just as significant as the missed scoring opportunities, Cascade was the beneficiary of Gonzaga’s inability to clear the ball out of its end of the field.

After Nuon gave the Everett school a 1-0 lead at the 8-minute mark, G-Prep goalie Brian Mullen attempted to clear a ball. His kick ricocheted off the back of teammate Ryan Goodell and Al-Rashid chased it down and put the ball in the net.

“We made a lot of stupid mistakes,” Gonzaga Prep coach Christian Birrer said. “And I don’t know why. We just made too many defensive errors.”

On defense, Cascade put the clamps on Ascolese, Chad Zlateff and Tyler Jordan.

“Zlateff and Ascolese are just dangerous,” Cascade coach Pat Henderson said. “After watching them Friday night, we were not going to let them run free and get off shots.”

Cascade goalie Ryan Shay also contributed to G-Prep’s offensive frustrations, making five spectacular saves.

“I don’t know if there was some magic Saran Wrap in front of the goal that helped us, but Shay came up with some big saves,” Henderson said.

Also coming up big for Cascade was Al-Rashid. He suffered through numerous injuries during the season and said that may have contributed to a midseason slump.

“I just finally started to play a little bit better towards the end of the season,” Al-Rashid said. “I guess I picked a pretty good day to have one of my best games of the year.”

Cascade’s Nick Parker added another goal late in the game.

But Saturday’s defeat didn’t take away anything G-Prep had accomplished this season. The Bullpups were the Greater Spokane League’s district champions and compiled a 19-4 record.

“I’m really proud of this team,” Birrer said. “We showed a lot of character at a lot of different points in this season.”

As for Cascade coach Henderson, older brother of U.S. National soccer player Chris Henderson, he received the championship he couldn’t win as a Cascade player in the early ‘80s. His team lost to Mountain View in the state final during his senior year.

After his team won, Henderson was calculating how to get to Yakima by 8 p.m. - he’s a player/coach for the Everett BigFoot semipro team, which played Saturday night.

“I doubt if I’ll be able to get out of here,” he said. “The last commercial flight left about the time this game started.”