Columbia Basin needed all of 47 seconds to get on the board Thursday afternoon, and the Hawks never looked back, closing out a 3-0 sweep of Blue Mountain to improve to 4-1-2 overall and 2-0-0 in league play.
Jonathan Licona supplied the opening blow almost immediately, finishing unassisted less than a minute into the match with a dazzling display of ball-handling. It set the tone for a first half in which Columbia Basin controlled play without needing to force anything. Just over four minutes later,
Fernando Orozco doubled the lead, converting a pass from
Diego Aguirre in the fifth minute to make it 2-0 before Blue Mountain had recorded a shot of its own. The Hawks carried that cushion through a first half in which they out-shot Blue Mountain 8-2 and forced three saves out of keeper Bryan Chesledon, including one apiece from
Rico Rivera and Licona in a two-minute span midway through the period.
The second half settled into a more measured pace, but Columbia Basin kept generating chances even as the scoreboard held steady.
Kristian Iniguez and
Sergio Mora both tested Chesledon in the run of play, and
Jan Vergara had a shot saved in the 61st minute after winning a pair of corner kicks. The insurance goal didn't arrive until deep into the second half, when Licona — who'd come back on as a substitute — collected a pass from goalkeeper
Moises Nino flying down the field and beat Chesledon in the 82nd minute for his second of the day, sealing the 3-0 final.
Nino's send pass for the third goal capped a quiet but efficient afternoon between the posts; he made one save in the opening half before
Luis Mancera took over in goal for the finish, and Columbia Basin didn't concede a shot on target the rest of the way. The Hawks finished with 16 shots to Blue Mountain's three and won four corner kicks to the visitors' four, one of the few categories where the match was even.
Discipline was a minor theme — Columbia Basin picked up four yellow cards over the 90 minutes, including cautions on
Ian Martinez and
Esteban Hernandez in the second half — but none disrupted the flow enough to give Blue Mountain a foothold. With the shutout, Columbia Basin has now won consecutive league matches by a combined score of 4-0, a defense that's given its attack all the room it needs to keep piling up goals.
The Hawks will hit the road next week in Wenatchee on Wednesday before a big showdown in Spokane against the Sasquatch on Saturday.
