Experience holds the key to Cheney soccer success

With pretty much everyone back, the Cheney High boys soccer team should be in a good position for not only Great Northern League success, but in the postseason as well.

The Blackhawks return seven seniors from last year's 10-8 team that lost 3-1 to second-seeded East Valley in the District 7 playoff semifinals. Of those, five are starters, led by Noah Prophet and Kelby Holland.

Second-year head coach Morgan Hartanov has Prophet at one of the two forward positions along with fellow senior Blake Smith, while Holland takes up a center midfield position alongside senior Graham West. Sophomore Sam Fix and freshman Bas Holland also start on the mid-line.

"All four know how to play with each other," Hartanov said of his midfielders.

Senior Trevor Babcock and junior Adam Deutsch anchor the center of the back line, with junior Gabe Hemmenway at left back and sophomore Noah Schorzman at right back. In the net will be junior goalkeeper Dalton Mauzay, who has already made five penalty kick saves to help lift Cheney to wins over Pullman and University High School.

Hartanov said sophomore Dillyn Reader will be a key player off the bench, fitting in not only on defense but also in the front line.

"I think we're strong all the way across the board," Hartanov said. "Not a lot of weak spots."

Hartanov said the biggest thing has been mental, namely getting his players to buy into his philosophy and system of playing soccer. For Hartanov, that is a possession-style game, creating opportunities and focusing on what can be controlled.

Hartanov believes in pushing numbers up front to create more chances for exploiting openings in the opponents defense. By contrast, he feels a lot of offenses in high school, particularly the GNL, rely on getting the ball up in the air and hoping to capitalize on "lucky" bounces.

"We have a good enough team that we don't have to rely on lucky bounces," Hartanov said.

So far, the ball has bounced Cheney's way, and Hartanov feels his team has been playing "quality soccer" so far. That continued last week with three more wins to run the Blackhawks overall mark to 5-1 and 3-0 in GNL play.

Cheney opened with a 3-1 win in Clarkston on March 21 over what Hartanov said is a much improved Bantams team. The Blackhawks got second-half goals by Prophet and Smith to break a 1-1 halftime tie, with Schorzman's goal giving them an early 1-0 lead in the first 40 minutes.

Cheney out shot Clarkston 14-7, with Mauzay making seven saves.

Last Thursday the Blackhawks got a first-half goal from Holland and a pair of second-half scores from Prophet to open a 3-0 lead at West Valley en route to the 3-1 win. Cheney out shot the Eagles 19-18 with Mauzay making eight saves.

Saturday evening at University, Mauzay made a couple key penalty kick stops, and the Blackhawks out scored the Titans 4-2 in PK goals for a 2-1 shootout win. Scoring were Smith, Prophet, Holland and Schorzman, with Schorzman's PK goal in regulation tying the game at 1 in the 74th minute.

Mauzay made seven saves overall. University out shot Cheney 11-7.

Cheney continues league action this week with home games against East Valley (Tuesday) and then kick-off the second round of GNL play by hosting Pullman today (Thursday). Hartanov said graduation hit other schools harder than Cheney, with the Greyhounds losing seven players, but he still expects it to be a competitive season nonetheless.

"It's going to be a battle," he added.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.