Shots finally fall for Medical Lake soccer in pair of wins

The opponent’s net is finally finding a home for Medical Lake shots, particularly those of Nick Rosenbeck.

A week after the Cardinals experienced a drought on the soccer field and went winless, they rained down enough goals to exit last week with a pair of Northeast A League wins, 8-0 over Deer Park and 1-0 over Lakeside.

Medical Lake evened its NEA record at 4-4 (6-7 overall) and tied Lakeside (4-4, 4-7) for third place with two contests remaining in the regular season.

“We were struggling in the first half,” Cards’ head coach Zane Higgins said. “But we kind of poured it on right at the beginning of the second half.”

Rosenbeck scored the first of his four goals in the first half, connecting in the 17th and 35th minutes. He added two more in the 41st and 44th minutes.

“It was good to see him scoring,” Higgins said. But what was more pleasing was defensively the Cardinals never allowed a shot on goal versus the last-place Stags (0-8, 0-11). “We’ve been playing well defensively for a while,” Higgins said. Sam Matt earned the shutout against Deer Park.

Things proved tougher against Lakeside. Medical Lak e won earlier in the season, 5-3, but struggled this time to get shots, Higgins said. “It was a pretty good defensive battle on both sides.”

It was Rosenbeck again who was pivotal in being a part of the limited offense the Cardinals needed, providing the perfect assist on Nick Reed’s goal 15 minutes into the contest.

“Rosenbeck got the ball and played it across the penalty spot; Nick Reed overlapped from his midfield position and put it in,” Higgins said.

Medical Lake was at Riverside (3-5, 5-7) this past Tuesday, May 3, and is home today, May 5 for Senior Day at Shepherd Field versus league-leading Colville (7-1, 8-1), a team that edged the Cards 2-1 April 19.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.