Cardinals enter crucial games in Great Northern soccer play

 


By PAUL DELANEY

Staff Reporter

The timing may be just right for Medical Lake's soccer team as they meet both Pullman and Cheney in the same week. Because admit it or not, this is the time when the Cards would love to deliver a little payback.

Winners of three straight and six of their last eight games – their only losses coming by similar 2-1 scores to both the Blackhawks and Greyhounds – Cardinals' head coach Zane Higgins appears quietly confident. The Cheney game was decided in a shootout.

“Right now we're playing our best soccer. I'll be curious to see how we do against both of these teams,” Higgins said. “I think we're playing very focused and doing a good job of communicating on the field. I think it should be good.”

That “best soccer” reference was Higgins' assertion following his team's two victories last week in a pair of Great Northern League outings. Medical Lake beat Deer Park 4-1 at home before rolling to a 6-0 shutout victory at Clarkston. The wins improved the Cards' record to 6-3 in league play and 9-4 overall.

This past Tuesday Medical Lake was at Pullman (6-3, 7-5) and hosts Cheney (6-2, 7-4) at Shephard Field Thursday at 4 p.m.

“We've been playing well lately,” Higgins said. But their win over the Stags was decidedly different than their first meeting. Medical Lake beat Deer Park in a wild high-scoring 10-2 runaway back on March 17.

Taylor Satcher scored once – the game's first goal in the 22nd minute – and added an assist on a Justin Shirley goal in the 76th minute. “Taylor played really, really well that game,” Higgins said of his junior forward.

In between the Cards got an own goal in the 45th minute, plus a score form Damien Lawson in the 68th minute.

The own goal came off a corner kick. “The ball was played off the near post, we had a runner in, they had a runner in and it just kind of deflected off one of their players into the goal,” Higgins said. “If their player didn't hit it I think ours would have.”

At Clarkston, the Cardinals had an early lead on Josh Morrow's back-to-back goals in the fifth and ninth minutes. Devon Prince got the next pair in the 23rd and 32nd minute to end the half.

“Josh Morrow came out really strong that game and put two corner kicks away for us,” Higgins said.

Midfielder Marco Wintermeyer got a notable long-range goal in the 58th minute, similar on paper at least to the game winner he got in the Cards' 1-0 double-overtime upset of league-leading East Valley on April 9.

“Marco's goal came off a direct free kick,” Higgins explained. “He put it in the top corner – a beautiful kick – from probably 25 yards out. This one was a little bit different that the East Valley one; this one he was definitely shooting,” unlike his boot that got a boost from a gust of wind to beat the Knights.

Keeper Ian Graves earned both wins and notched his fourth shutout of the season, stopping four shots against Deer Park and five versus Clarkston.

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

 

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