Seaside Seagulls' Jackson Januik battles for the ball.

The Seaside boys soccer team missed out on their Cowapa League title this season — but the Gulls more than made up for it Saturday night, Oct. 29, on their home field.

Seaside’s Chase Januik scored three goals and the defense pitched a shutout for the Gulls, who defeated Cottage Grove 3-0 in a Class 4A Regional Play-in at Broadway Field.

And from all appearances, Seaside isn’t going to stop at just one playoff win. The Gulls could be playing for a while.

Their next action will be 1 p.m. Wednesday at La Grande for a Sweet 16 game. The winner will face either Madras or McLoughlin, and the Gulls are already talking about the possibility of hosting a game in the quarterfinals.

“Without being overconfident, I think it’s important in the playoffs that you do look ahead,” said Seaside coach John Chapman. “Our boys are focused for the next couple games, that we have a very good chance of succeeding.

“We didn’t finish the league the way we wanted to,” he said. “But we think we can still compete well in the playoffs. We’re fit, we’re uninjured and we’re peaking right when we want to be.”

The Gulls couldn’t have been much more dominant in Saturday’s win.

From the opening kick, Seaside was threatening to score. The Gulls did all the possessing, passing and shooting in the first half, while the Lions crossed midfield just a few times, with no shots on goal.

Meanwhile, Seaside had the Cottage Grove defenders with their backs to the wall from the outset.

The Gulls had seven shots on goal in the first 10 minutes, including a breakaway by Will Garvin just minutes into the game. Lion keeper Zachariah Stewart managed to stop the shot, then smothered another attempt by Garvin off a deflection of the first shot.

Additional attempts by Colton Carter, Jackson Januik and Brent Walsh were all saved by Stewart, who played a solid first half under pressure.

The first goal finally came off the foot of Chase Januik, the younger brother of Jackson. Chase actually outran is older brother to run down a pass in the 34th minute, and once he caught up to the ball, Chase — from 30 yards out — sent a left-footed shot into the lower right corner of the net for the game’s first score.

“We were wondering when that first goal was going to slip in,” Chapman said. “It didn’t happen until the end of the first half, and it was just another momentum change for us. We went from fourth gear to fifth gear.

“I was very pleased with how the boys came out,” he added. “Poised, strong and committed to what we wanted to do with the ball, and we immediately controlled the middle of the field.”

The sophomore scored again with just 1:09 left in the half, when a shot by Garvin deflected back to Januik, who scored from close range.

While there was very little action at the northwest end of the field in the first half, and there wasn’t much more at the southeast end in the second half.

Seaside goalkeeper Jesus Perez only had to make one stop in the final 40 minutes.

The Gulls also had fewer shots on goal in the second half (just five), as a free kick from Carter bounced off the left post in the 57th minute, and another attempt by Walsh was saved.

Januik recorded his third goal with 15:11 remaining in the game, as Chase chased down a pass up the middle from Carter, and scored from the left side of the penalty area, from 20 yards out.

“Cottage Grove plays in a tough division with Sisters and some of those others,” Chapman said. “They haven’t scored many goals, but they’ve also kept some of the strong teams close at hand. They challenged hard, but our guys were a step ahead for most of the game.”

The Lions will also be tough in the future, with only one senior on the roster.

Meanwhile, the Gulls gave a glimpse of their own future, with the younger Januik.

“I believe he has scored before, but I can’t think of another time when a sophomore has scored a hat trick in a playoff game,” Chapman said of Chase Januik. “Give credit to Chase for putting it in the net, and give credit to the rest of the team for getting him into a position to do it.”