Eaton, McCauley lead Lady Blackhawks to first league win

When it comes to winning in the Great Northern League, the Cheney High School girls’ soccer team is finally off the snide.

The Lady Blackhawks got goals by Reba Eaton and Jasmine McCauley, and backed those up with solid defense to shutout Pullman 2-0 on the road Oct. 13 for the team’s first GNL win.

Carla Thorson played a through ball to Eaton that the senior redirected around the Greyhound’s goalkeeper in the 11th minute for Cheney’s first score. McCauley provided some insurance in the 68th minute, blasting a shot from near midfield that dropped just below the crossbar and just over the keepers outstretched arms for the score.

No other statistics were available.

“We played well, and we definitely created more (scoring) opportunities,” Lady Blackhawks head coach Nels Radtke said.

Those opportunities failed to travel with Cheney two days later to league-leading East Valley. Radtke said they may have had a case of a mental letdown after the euphoria of their first win, losing 6-0 to the Knights.

East Valley out shot Cheney 11-2 as the Knights practiced a Chicago-voting-style offense, scoring early and scoring often. Goalkeeper Nicole Rowley had three saves while freshman keeper Melissa Aris notched two.

Cheney almost got their momentum back Saturday at home against Clarkston. After a scoreless first half, Clarkston’s Leah Edens got the Bantams on the board with a goal in the 62nd minute.

Cheney wasted no time in getting the equalizer six minutes later. McCauley served a nice ball off a set piece towards the goal that Lelie Holland calmly headed in to knot the score at 1.

But after two overtime frames, the game went to a shootout and what appeared early in the season against Shadle Park to be a Cheney strength — shooting penalty kicks — hasn’t materialize in league play. The Lady Blackhawks failed to connect on their kicks while Clarkston sent three into the net, and left town with a 2-1 win.

In two GNL games ending in shootouts this season, Cheney is 0 – 6.

“We’ll work on it more,” Radtke said.

The Lady Blackhawks remain in fifth place at 1-10, 2-12 overall with five points. The good news in that is they are tied with Pullman, and host the Greyhounds in the regular-season finale this Saturday, with the winner likely taking over fourth.

In between, Cheney travels to West Valley today (Thursday) to face the Eagles, 8-2, 9-4, 23 points, who are just two points behind East Valley for the league lead. Radtke the team has played well against West Valley, and has a chance to pull off a win if they can keep working producing scoring opportunities through their new 4-3-3 alignment.

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