Blackhawks drop to fourth in GNL soccer with loss at Pullman

 


By JOHN McCALLUM

Editor

For 30 minutes last Saturday in Pullman Cheney boys' soccer head coach Mark Kiver said his team played some of the most consistent and dominating soccer they've played all season.

But after that the wheels came off the Blackhawks wagon. Up 2-0, Cheney gave up three straight goals, including the game-winner in the 62nd minute, to fall 3-2 to the Greyhounds, and in the process dropped into fourth place in the Great Northern League standings.

“Pullman played a good game,” Kiver said Monday night. “We made a couple of mistakes defensively and that was the game.”

At the start though it was Cheney's game. The Blackhawks controlled the pitch, moving the ball, getting good possessions while limiting the Greyhounds' offensive opportunities.

Cheney's first goal came in the 22nd minute when forward Forester Seipp possessed a ball and flicked a pass to Jose Ferrari, who made a couple moves and knocked in a goal for a 1-0 lead. Five minutes later, senior Jacob Mager tried a crossing pass through the box that was deflected by a Pullman defender's arm.

The hand penalty gave Cheney's Evan Cook a free kick that he converted for a 2-0 lead.

From there though the tide turned in Pullman's favor. Kiver said the Blackhawks lost their shape defensively and the Greyhounds capitalized.

In the 31st minute Dylan Havey's pass got behind Cheney defenders and Kevin Spangenberg possessed it and knocked it into goal to cut Cheney's lead in half. In the 39th minute, Tyler Pratt was called for a player foul trying to tackle the ball, something Kiver said was a questionable call, resulting in a penalty kick converted by Pullman's Matte Lange tying the score.

In the second half both teams exchanged momentum and offensive opportunities. In the end it was Pullman, again getting behind a Cheney defensive lineup that Kiver said they didn't have push up as much as they should have, resulting in a pass from Nick Stevens to Spangenberg that the junior knocked in for the game winner in the 62nd minute.

Pullman out shot Cheney 14-12, with Blackhawk goalkeepers John Gingrich and Joe Scott making six and three saves respectively.

The loss gives Cheney a 6-2 mark in GNL play, 7-4 overall with 16 points. The Blackhawks are a half game behind Medical Lake and Pullman in the loss column; five and three points back overall, although Kiver questioned the accuracy of the points.

Even so, the second-year head coach felt his team was still in charge of its playoff destiny and saw a lot of good things come out of the Pullman game.

Cheney has four games remaining, two against teams ahead of them in the standings – Medical Lake and East Valley. The Blackhawks game is solidifying, needing just a little bit of tweaking here and there, such as midfield support, and they're finally getting close to having the team on the field Kiver thought they would have at the beginning of the season.

Freshman midfielder Micah Weller is back from an earlier injury and senior midfielder Xavier Day, who missed every game due to a knee injury during basketball, was also back against Pullman. Despite limited minutes, Kiver said Day made an impact in Saturday's game.

“We still haven't had a consistency in a lineup, and we're still trying to play around that,” Kiver said. “But things are going well for us. We're focused and we just need to get things done.”

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

 

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