Medical Lake soccer coach Zane Higgins might have been wondering last week if he hadn’t seen this movie before.
Because in many ways, the Cardinals’ week — a 4-0 win over Deer Park on April 18 and a 5-2 loss to Colville two days later in Northeast A League play — bore a striking resemblance to several weeks ago when his team had a similar split.
Maybe what separated the two was that Medical Lake traveled to Clarkston for a nonleague contest and a 3-1 loss against the Great Northern League’s Bantams
Earlier in March, the Cardinals breezed by the Stags, 7-0, and lost to Colville, 5-2.
“It was odd, almost a carbon copy of before,” Higgins said of the NEA games. Nick Rosenbeck had a pair of goals against Deer Park with Garren Garza and Carter Pivonca adding singles in a 28-shot barrage. Kaye Jones recorded the shutout by stopping four DP shots for Medical Lake.
At Colville (7-2 NEA, 8-2 overall), Brayden Petersen opened scoring in the 25th minute, but Colville, led by Alberto Cisneros and his pair of goals, would score the next three. Rosenbeck added a goal in the 64th minute to make it 3-2, but Colville iced it with goals in the 71st and 77th minutes.
“It was a good game until the last 10 minutes,” Higgins said. The fade at Colville, and an early goal that was scored in Clarkston, are symptoms of an ongoing issue Higgins has been trying to help correct.
“The majority of them (goals) are happening in the first five minutes or last five minutes of the half,” Higgins said. “We’re having some serious focus problems.”
Theodore Baiye scored the first of his two goals just four minutes into the Clarkston game. Pivonca tied it at 13 minutes but Baiye collected the winner in the 55th minute and the Bantams added an insurance tally in the 63rd minute.
“We did a good job of coming back on them,” Higgins said. “After they scored, we played very well,” he added, noting Medical Lake hit the goalpost and had a pair of other shots carom off the side netting.
“We were close to going up 2-1 and it would have been a different game,” Higgins said.
At 4-4 in NEA play (5-7 overall), Medical Lake has two games remaining. The Cards were at Lakeside (6-2, 7-2) April 25 and finish regular season play at home today, April 27 versus Riverside (1-6, 1-6) at 4 p.m.
Regardless of what happens in those contests, the Cardinals are the No. 4 seed in district play and will travel to face No. 1 (either Colville or Lakseside) in a lower-out round, Tuesday, May 2.
Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.
Reader Comments(0)