HILLSBORO – The losses tend to stick sometimes more than the wins, and that’s how Catlin Gabel boys soccer felt coming into the 2026 season.
After losing in the 3A/2A/1A state title game last season to Westside Christian, the Eagles were determined to right that wrong.
In the semifinals, the Eagles beat that Westside team 8-0 to earn another crack at the title, this time just in 3A with the split of 3A and 2A/1A this season.
And Saturday at Liberty High School in the OSAA/OnPoint Community Credit Union 3A title match against No. 2 St. Mary’s Medford, the Eagles completed the mission.
A first half goal by junior Ben Sirtori was enough, but senior Liam Travers added a couple late goals to ice the 3-0 win and hand Catlin Gabel its 16th boys soccer state title.
“It’s amazing, going into the season I was really confident in our team, I knew we had a good squad,” Travers said. “We had some ups and downs definitely midway through the season, but this feeling right now, I don’t even have words for it. It’s so amazing, the squad played great and I couldn’t be happier with what we’ve done here.”
“Last year was tragic that we lost and the boys have been so focused on getting it back,” Sirtori said. “It was an incredible team effort, everyone played amazing and it was like, ‘So much for the bad.’”
Catlin Gabel got a mercy-rule victory in the semifinals last year and said that might have inflated some confidence going into the 2025 title match.
So when the same happened this year, the boys made sure to check their ego and stick to playing their game against a St. Mary’s Medford that tied them 2-2 to open the 2026 season.
“I felt like last season when we came into the finals we were too confident,” Eagles head coach Russ Magoon said. “I really think you have to be humble going into the finals because anything can happen. … There’s nothing guaranteed.”
“I think we learned an important lesson about over confidence,” Sirtori said of lessons learned from 2025. “We were really overconfident going into the finals, and then this year, Giancarlo (Rendon-Benitez) and Liam really set the tone and kind of beat it into us like, ‘We need to win this right now.’”
Catlin Gabel got off to a hot start in the eighth minute when sophomore Diego Flores fired a cross from the far side into the near-side corner of the box. The cross looked harmless, but a miscommunication by the St. Mary’s Medford back line left the ball rolling to a wide open Sirtori.
Sirtori simply stepped up and fired a shot that curved perfectly into the top, near-side corner and over the outstretched, diving arms of Crusaders senior goalkeeper Wolf Rozs Johansson.
“The ball was bouncing and I take that shot, that’s my favorite shot in the entire game,” Sirtori said of the goal. “Bouncing inside the top of the box, I love hitting that, it’s really just muscle memory.”
“(St. Mary’s) were the only ones who scored first against us this year,” Magoon said. “That was something for sure that we addressed like, ‘We want the first goal.’ I told the boys, ‘One, two, four.’ We want the first goal, we want the second goal and we want four.”
The Eagles kept the pedal to the metal after the goal as well, racking up eight shots in the first half. However, the Crusaders started to have some push back with 15 minutes left in the opening stanza.
St. Mary’s was able to put up five shots before halftime, including one great look on a free kick off the foot of senior Sawyer Baker that curled perfectly into the box, but just out of reach of any of his teammates to get the final touch.
Still, the Crusaders were knocking on the door to end the first half and felt poised for a breakthrough in the final 40.
Instead, five minutes into the second half, it looked like Travers was about to make it 2-0 when he slipped behind the Crusaders defense on an entry pass with just the keeper in front.
Instead, a Crusaders defender came crashing in and blocked the shot before it even got to Johansson to try and save.
In the 48th minute, Travers got even closer when he appeared to lay down a perfect flying header off a corner kick, only to be denied by Johansson diving to his right and getting his finger tips on the ball at the last moment in the air.
Like the first half, St. Mary’s Medford wasn’t going to lay down and got a good look in the 58th minute when Baker flicked a header toward the net that was redirected to the other side of the net by an Eagles defender trying to clear it. The ball went wide of the net though and kept the Crusaders off the board.
That flick sparked some life into the Crusaders though as the offense started to break through more as the rain started to come down in Hillsboro.
“They’ve gone through hurdles through the season,” Travers said of the back line. “We started off well, but there were definitely some things we needed to work out. Our coach definitely helped us with that, whole week through practice we were working on building out and I think that really showed here. They just put in passion, it's just passion, that’s all you can describe it as.”
In the 64th minute, it was Baker again just missing wide on a header to the near-side, and that was the last real good look the Crusaders would have. Catlin Gabel junior goalkeeper Nuri Sahavi finished with five saves to help preserve the shutout, along with excellent play from the back line.
"Nuri had a really good save and a couple catches that look simple, but they're not, especially if the ball has some pace on it," Magoon said. "The back line, we haven't had a lot of clean sheets, we've been more outscoring teams. But to get one in a final, they were all kind of dialed in and working hard."
With St. Mary’s pressing forward, it was Travers again, and this time he wouldn't be denied as he stole a throw-in by the Crusaders down near the goal and rocketed it quickly into the net for a 2-0 Catlin Gabel lead with less than three minutes to go.
Less than a minute later, Travers scored again when Rendon-Benitez passed it to him off a free kick and Travers fired it from the far-side across goal and into the net, icing the 3-0 victory.
“The whole game I was like, ‘I’m gonna score,’” Travers said. “One of them was bound to go in and I just had to keep pressing. I got tired towards the end of the game there and then I was just like, ‘This is my last game of high school, just leave it all on the field.’”
Catlin Gabel finished with a 21-12 shot advantage, 10-5 in terms of shots on goals, plus four more corners as the Eagles controlled for a majority of the match.
The state title marks the 16th in program history, still two behind Jesuit for the most in Oregon history after the Crusaders also won the 6A title on Saturday night.
It’s also the third state title for the Eagles in six years and the second for Travers and seniors Brandon Perlewitz, Rendon-Benitez, Rennen Hager and Boone Wilcox.
“This happened my sophomore year, the girls and guys won,” Travers said. “I didn’t have that same role as I did today, but it’s amazing and I can’t wait to go celebrate.”
austinw@osaa.org
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