Hockinson Soars Over Foster, Advances to State

Hockinson Soars Over Foster, Advances to State
By Steven Dion

Kent-Meridian High School played host to regional Saturday for four win-or-go-home games to move on to championship weekend. The first contest of the day featured Hockinson from the Greater St. Helens league and Foster from the Seamount. With a trip to the Yakima Valley SunDome on the line, this interleague matchup was bound to supply plenty of excitement for the Hawk blue and Bulldog purple in the grandstands.

The first half got off to a high energy start as the tempo was fast and the scoring opportunities were plentiful. The amount of offensive rebounds each team recorded early on was noteworthy and led to chaos under the rim as each squad battled for boards. Hockinson established their precision shooting in the first sixteen minutes highlighted by a trio of three-pointers by Alan Haagen. Foster countered with effective perimeter shooting of their own by Cory Covarrubia, Patrick Straight, and Ben Mitchell. The matchup of forwards Austin Steimle of HHS and Ronnie Roberson of FHS was fun to watch as the bigs were very physical down low. The Hawks were able to build an eight point lead after one half of play at 28-20.

After the break, Foster understood they would need to find a leader that could step up and get the Bulldogs back into the game. Mitchell answered the call. The senior distributed the ball to teammates nicely and attacked the rim aggressively. Hockinson did not back down though as Jack Klodt made an acrobatic And-1 en route to a ten point third quarter. At the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Hawks held onto a six point lead and put on the finishing touches. Converting on several foul shots down the stretch, HHS was able to win convincingly by the final score of 64-53 largely due the high scoring volume of Klodt and Haagen with 24 and 22 points respectively. Congrats to the Hawks as they punch their ticket to the big dance.

Top Performers:
Hockinson
Jack Klodt – 24 points, 15/15 FT’s
Alan Haagen – 22 points, 13/14 FT’s

Foster
Cory Covarrubia- 12 points, 4-3pt. FG’s