Columbia River boys soccer rallies past Hockinson 3-1 to clinch another 2A Greater St. Helens League title

HOCKINSON - The Columbia River boys soccer team has built quite the reputation this season as a second-half team.

The Rapids put that on full display Tuesday, scoring second-half goals to beat Hockinson 3-1 and secure another 2A Greater St. Helens League title.

"I think this win really means a lot," senior Christian Estrada said. "This secured league for us. I thought our second-half performance was amazing. The changes we made, that was crazy. I thought we had one hell of a half."

After falling 5-0 to River in the team's first meeting, Hockinson showed it was much better prepared on Tuesday.

Ryder Cole-Vogler got the Hawks up early with a goal in the fifth minute on an assist from Ronan Cabebe.

And the Hawks kept the pressure coming throughout the first half, and Owen Donowitz had a stellar half in goal, allowing Hockinson to take 1-0 lead into halftime.

But then River coach Matt Newman changed some strategy.

"We were getting beaten in the midfield, so we needed to get some more numbers in there," Newman said. "We made some tactical changes, put a couple of guys up top to force their center backs to be under pressure a little bit more, and it worked."

It worked quickly as Gavin Sellers was able to make an early change and slip a shot past a drawn-out keeper to tie the match 1-1 in the 45th minutes.

From there, momentum seemed to swing toward the Rapids.

"The way we changed up our midfield, I thought we lost the midfield battle the whole (first) half," Estrada said. "But in the second (half), I don't think we lost it at all. I think our first goal just opened up the whole game for us. We got a lot of momentum. We got a second then got a late third for the game."

The second goal went to Estrada in the 65th minute, with an assist from Ethan Adams. It was Estrada's first varsity goal in the run of play.

"The ball came up, I had it," Estrada said. "I played it to Ethan. He played it back to me. At first, I kind of fell when I shot it, and I thought the goalie was going to get it because that's a really good goalie. I thought he was going to save it. But the way it went top right, oh man I was so happy when it went in."

Then he got to show off his knee-slide celebration.

"I was panicking on my knee slide because I thought I was going to tear my ACL on the knee slide," he said. "But that's my knee slide."

Teagan Goaring had River's third goal right before the final whistle.

The Rapids can't quite look to the postseason yet. They still have two more league matches against Washougal and R.A. Long.

But senior Bryce Diaz likes how the Rapids are playing right now.

"I'm feeling definitely confident with this team," Diaz said. "We can definitely take a run at the state title. We have the effort. We've been tested with some hard games, and we've got two more to go. But we can definitely run for state."

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This story was originally published April 29, 2026 at 7:07 AM.