By NEIL PIERSON
Staff Reporter
The Medical Lake boys soccer team dropped its first two Great Northern League contests of the year, falling twice on the road last week.
Last Thursday at Lakeside, the Cardinals didn't start with much passion and struggled throughout the first half with ball possession. The Eagles, a talented and veteran squad, converted the game's first goal in the 33rd minute and went on for a 3-0 victory.
“It seems like last year and the first game this year, we come out really slow and they take advantage of it,” Cards coach Zane Higgins said. “They just had the momentum for the entire first half and finally ended up capitalizing on it near the end of the half.”
Struggling to mount any sort of attack through the midfield, Higgins began pushing his defenders into the fray in the second half. While that led to a few more scoring chances, it also opened holes in the Cards' defensive half, and Lakeside added two more goals in the 48th and 61st minutes.
ML played without three starters. Forward Brandon Robo was suspended after receiving a red card in the GNL opener with Cheney, midfielder Bobby Hodge was injured and defender Chris Schweikhardt was on vacation.
“They do have some fast players that I think took advantage of our lack of speed,” Higgins said of Lakeside.
The Eagles out-shot ML 15-4, with junior goalkeeper John Melvin making 11 saves.
Two days earlier at Cheney, the Cards proved competitive but not quite equal to the Blackhawks. Cheney beat ML 8-0 last season, a shellacking that proved to be a motivator for the teams' first-ever GNL contest.
“We remember the game from last year,” Higgins said. “We got beat very badly. We kind of came in determined that they weren't going to do that again.”
The Hawks didn't have the same horses that led them to state 3A playoff appearances the past two seasons, but still had enough firepower to pull out a 2-0 triumph.
After a scoreless first half, Cheney's Adam Zakrzewski scored in the 44th and 78th minutes. The Hawks had 13 shots to ML's four, with Melvin collecting six saves.
“We again could've generated more scoring opportunities, but the ones we had we should've converted on,” Higgins said. “Cheney obviously is a very good team and they possessed the ball very well.”
ML returned to Shepard Field for two league games this week, Tuesday against Clarkston (results available next week) and Thursday against Riverside. After that it's back on the road again—Saturday at Chewelah, next Tuesday at Pullman and next Thursday at West Valley.
Improvement on offense is the focus, Higgins said, and it all begins with possession in the middle of the field.
“We've got to start building up through our midfield better and possessing the ball,” he said, “otherwise we're not going to get many chances to score.”
Neil Pierson can be reached at npierson@cheneyfreepress.com
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