Catlin Gabel hold off St. Mary's for 2-1 win
OSAA / U.S. Bank / Les Schwab Tires 2A/1A Boys Final
November 16, 2002 at West Salem High School, Salem, Oregon
(Click on any match photo for a larger (up to 300K) version of each pic)

GOALS
31' - Catlin Gabel: Nathan Krishnamurthy (Brendan Douglas)
39' - Catlin Gabel: Chris Dorough (unassisted)
56' - St. Mary's: Michael Staver (unassisted)

Nathan Krishnamurthy and Chris Dorough both scored first half goals for Catlin Gabel in the 2A/1A Boys Finals, then held off a late charge by St. Mary's as the Eagles defeated the Crusaders in the title game of the OSAA / U.S. Bank / Les Schwab Tires 2A/1A Boys Final. Michael Staver had the lone goal for the Crusaders.

Catlin Gabel had all of the early momentum, and in the 10th minute, Colin Denman had an open look at net from 10 yards, but couldn 't put the shot on net. Shortly afterwards, the Eagle's Brendan Douglas put a header off a corner kick just over the net.

In the 21st minute, St. Mary's had their first good chance when a ball into the path of Sean Snider had the Crusaders attacker just a few steps from being in alone on the Eagles keeper, but Catlin Gabel goalkeeper Teddy Lane came out of the box and slid to kick the ball out of danger. But in the 31st minute, Eagles midfielder Brendan Douglas froze the Crusaders defense when he did a flip throw-in from the side, and the ball seemed to have eyes as it trickled through the frozen Crusaders defense. Eagles forward Nathan Krishnamurthy jumped on the ball and knocked the ball into the upper left corner, and Catlin Gabel had a 1-0 lead.

Three minutes later, the Eagles nearly widened the lead when Krishnamurthy made a run down the right side, but the threat was ended by a point blank save by Crusaders goalkeeper Greg Gradwell. But the Eagles made their next scoring threat pay off in the 39th minute when Chris Dorough collected a loose ball, cut inside to the top of the box, and hit a perfect shot inside the left bar to put the Eagles up 2-0 at halftime.

For the early part of the second half, the teams played pretty evenly, until a defensive mistake by the Eagles brought St. Mary's back into the match. Crusaders forward Michael Staver stole the ball from Catlin Gabel defender Hunter Jarrett, and in alone on the Eagles keeper, pulled him out of position and tapped the ball into an open net, and a match which had been pretty one-sided to this point was suddenly a one-goal affair.

Ten minute later, the Crusaders came within inches of tying the match when forward Josh Jones was unable to get his foot on a cross that had trickled through the Eagles box. The Eagles then responded with two good chances by Dorough, but were unable to convert either, first when the Eagles forward was unable to catch up with a through ball before the ball was smothered by the Crusaders keeper, the second when he hit a shot from 25 yards out that went just wide left. In the 70th minute, the Crusaders had another good chance to score go by when a cross to Snider was knocked over the crossbar from six yards out.

St. Mary's had one more shot at goal in the 75th minute when Snider turned on a shot from near the top of the box, but the shot was blocked by Eagles defender Aaron Greene. The Eagles were able to keep the ball away from the Crusaders for most of the rest of the match, and win their seventh championship, this being the first since 2A/1A was separated from 3A for this year's tournament.


Match report and all photos by Allison Andrews

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