OTHELLO – After missing three games with an injury, Othello junior Cristian Torres returned to the Huskie lineup and scored six goals over a four-game stretch, netting him Athlete of the Week honors by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association.

That stretch included a hat trick against Ellensburg, where Othello knocked off the previously undefeated Bulldogs with a 4-3 win.

“I saw that we were having a difficult time scoring, so I had to step it up,” Torres said. “I had to do my thing, which is score goals.”

Torres also scored a goal two games before his hat trick, a March 25 game against Grandview, and two goals against Selah two days after his hat trick against the Bulldogs.

“The vision, he’s really calm and able to see the ball,” Othello Head Coach Bernie Garza said. “He’ll distribute it to other players. I seriously think he could have scored 10 or 12 goals in that span, but he decided to opt out and distribute the ball to other players.”

The team above all mindset of Torres – who will commonly make that extra pass to a teammate, according to Garza – has helped the Huskies score a Central Washington Athletic Conference-high 28 goals this season, five more than second-place East Valley (Yakima).

“(He’s) like ‘I don’t need to score,’” Garza said. “‘I don’t need to be in the limelight, I don’t need the star.’ He just wants to win and be a part of it.”

Torres said he began playing soccer when he was only four years old, crediting the interest in starting to play to his father.

“Since I was young, my dad was always a soccer man,” Torres said. “He made his own soccer team and got me into it. I’ve been bought in ever since.”

“Six years old, I started to go to camps, started to go to different towns and playing different teams,” Torres said. “Scoring goals, getting lots of assists.”

The experience of playing since a young child has given Torres the ability to take the field and play to a level above what most players his age compete at, according to Garza.

“He brings a lot of experience from playing in adult leagues and playing on fall club teams,” Garza said. “He brings a lot of maturity at a young age. He’s a junior, but he plays like a senior. Not so much with the vocal aspect, but with his actions. He goes for every ball, he fights for every ball.”

A three-year member of the Othello varsity boys soccer team, Garza said Torres’ biggest improvement over the past three seasons has been his physical growth.

“He gained some more weight and hit the weight room, and now the body caught up to his skill,” Garza said. “He’s able to hold his own on guys trying to run him off the ball.”

As the junior closes out his third season and prepares for a senior campaign, he said his goal is to work on his craft during the off-season.

“Just work out a lot,” Torres said. “Get quicker and better myself.”

Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.

Year to date…

Torres and the Huskies are 7-4-1 this season and in second place in the CWAC. They return to the field on Thursday for a road game against Prosser at 6:30 p.m.