Wahluke soccer celebrates strong 18-4 season
CALEB PEREZ | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 year, 2 months AGO
Wahluke sophomore Icker Lopez looks for an open teammate. Lopez earned the title of Most Valuable Player in the SCAC this season.
CALEB PEREZ/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
Christopher Barajas-Ortiz makes a play for the ball in a game earlier this season. He will be one of the senior players on the team going into next season.
Diego Perez keeps the ball away from a Zillah player in a home game this season. This year the Warriors graduated nine seniors from the soccer team including Perez.
Franco Perez moves the ball down the field in a game in the middle of the season. Coach Cele Lopez said he is excited to see what the younger players on the team can accomplish next season.
Warriors’ senior Alvaro Rodriguez kicks the ball back into play in one of their regular season games. The team was able to make the state tournament after winning the SCAC league title and finishing third in the district tournament.
MATTAWA — The Wahluke Warriors soccer team ended their 2025 season with an overall record of 18-4. They also were the number one team in the South-Central Athletic Conference and earned third place in the district tournament.
“The expectation was for everyone to have a good season together,” said Warriors head coach Cele Lopez. “To have fun and for the seniors to enjoy the last opportunity they had to compete with the school, and it came out pretty good.”
This year the team earned several awards at the end of the season, including sophomore Icker Lopez getting the Most Valuable Player award and Cele Lopez earning the Coach of the Year award.
The Warriors were very optimistic at the start of this season, said Cele. Their first game put them up against Chelan where they came out with a 5-3 victory.
“It was really good to give us a high point for the players to beat Chelan in the first game of the season,” said Cele.
Their next set of games would be at a jamboree in Overlake where they would play against Royal, Overlake and University Prep. Wahluke tied against Royal and Overlake and made their way into day two where they experienced a 0-4 loss against University Prep.
Cele said it was a really heavy load to start the season off with, but that it set the pace for the team in the long term.
“We had a different perspective on how the season was going to look,” said the coach.
The Warriors would go on to a nine-game win streak by the end of the season, which put them as the number one seed in the district tournament with a record of 12-1. The Warriors would win in the first round against Granger 8-1 and in the second round against Connell 1-0 but would fall 0-1 to Wapato in the semifinals of districts putting them into the third-place game.
This year the 1A league had a new format where it combined both District five and six in the tournament, said Cele. This added to the level of competition experienced at the district tournament, making for more competitive games.
“It was a lot of intense games,” said Cele. “I think that is going to help every other team, not just us, if the league gets more competitive everybody has the opportunity to grow.”
The Warriors won third in the district after defeating Brewster 2-1 earning them a bye in the state tournament and would go on to beat Seton Catholic 1-0 in the second round. The team would fall in the quarterfinals to University Prep 1-6.
Cele said that he is very proud of the team’s performance this season as they were the top-scoring team in the SCAC, finished top of the league, third in districts and made it to the quarterfinals of the state tournament.
“This is the third year in a row that we won the league, but we can still conquer districts,” he said. “It’s a work in progress, we’re showing some results, maybe it’s not enough, but the program I think it’s on the right path.”
The Warriors graduated nine seniors this year, Leonardo Torres, Alex Acevedo, Diego Perez, Jafeth Gatica, Alvaro Rodriguez, Luis Corona, Miguel Mujica, Alonzo Saavedra and Alexis Zamora. The team is hopeful for the future with some upcoming freshmen players that will be added to the roster next season that Cele said are already showing some great performances.
Next season Cele said he wants to try and prioritize making everything more of a team effort and bringing everyone together.
“I focused too much on offense this year, trying to make everyone comfortable, and I think next year we’re going to do it more as a team,” he said. “It’s about how much effort the players are going to try to put in not just there in the game, but at practices and offseason.”
Christopher Barajas-Ortiz makes a play for the ball in a game earlier this season. He will be one of the senior players on the team going into next season.
Diego Perez keeps the ball away from a Zillah player in a home game this season. This year the Warriors graduated nine seniors from the soccer team including Perez.
Franco Perez moves the ball down the field in a game in the middle of the season. Coach Cele Lopez said he is excited to see what the younger players on the team can accomplish next season.
Warriors’ senior Alvaro Rodriguez kicks the ball back into play in one of their regular season games. The team was able to make the state tournament after winning the SCAC league title and finishing third in the district tournament.ARTICLES BY CALEB PEREZ
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