SISTERS — Rob Jensen was not about to be fooled by any seeding or ranking.

With Madras in town, the Sisters coach said, “we knew we had a game on our hands.”

And the No. 14-seeded White Buffaloes gave Jensen’s No. 3-seeded Outlaws all they could handle Wednesday afternoon before falling 2-0 in the first round of the Class 4A boys soccer state playoffs.

Jadon Bachtold scored on a penalty kick in the seventh minute, and Andreas Pedersen scored on a breakaway in the second half as Sisters (12-4) began defense of its 2013 state championship with a home-field win.

The Outlaws advance to host McLoughlin of Milton-Freewater in a quarterfinal contest Saturday. The No. 6-seeded Pioneers beat North Valley 4-2 in another first-round match Wednesday.

“I feel confident, and I think the guys feel confident,” said Jensen. But once the playoffs begin, he added, “no one is easy.”

Madras (10-6) brought a modest No. 18 OSAA ranking into the playoffs but was no mere first-round fodder. After a 3-3 start to the season, the White Buffaloes won seven of nine games to secure second place in the Tri-Valley Conference. On Wednesday, though, they could not match up with the Outlaws, champions of the Sky-Em League.

“Sisters is a really good team,” said Madras coach Clark Jones. “They’re tall, physical and athletic — really, one of the few teams this year that was able to keep up with us.”

The Outlaws took a 1-0 lead when Colton Mannhalter was tripped inside the penalty box and Bachtold punched in the PK.

“It was a legitimate call,” Jones said of the penalty. “Their player was fouled from behind.”

After that, said Jensen, “it was a good back-and-forth game. Madras played well.”

The score remained 1-0 until the 54th minute, when Pedersen took a feed from the right side from Ben Larson, broke away against the Madras defense and got off a shot from 15 yards out that found the upper right corner of the net for a 2-0 Sisters lead.

That proved plenty for the Outlaws, as Bachtold and Mannhalter controlled play at midfield and Tristan Kaczmarek and the Sisters defensive line kept the Buffs at bay.

“We had several different chances,” said Jones. “We just didn’t get anything in.”

Jones praised the play of his senior captains, Mario Urieta and Oved Felix, and another senior, Gustavo Alonso, who helped anchor the defense. Among Monday’s top performers for Madras were several players who are expected to return next season, including juniors Manny Diaz and Jose Romero, sophomore Omar Dominguez, and freshman Jonathan Reynoso.

“We played well today,” Jones concluded. “Just not well enough to win.”