Goalkeeper Lifts Eagles To State

Through a wild 90 minutes of soccer, Riverside/Deer Park players peppered West Valley’s Stacey Roberts with shot after shot.

But the WV goalkeeper remained impervious to the assault during a scoreless regulation and two 5-minute overtimes.

In the shootout that followed, WV outscored the regular season champions 4-2 and qualified as the Frontier League representative to state.

“Stacey gave a spectacular performance,” said Eagles coach Dirk Linton, whose team is making its first state appearance since 1991.

West Valley plays host to Othello at 2 p.m. on Saturday in the opening round of the State AA/A playoffs. Linton wasn’t exactly thrilled about the prospect of a shootout, especially since his team struggled in practice with it last week. However, the Eagles weren’t exactly shooting at an open net.

“We worked on it three days last week and were absolutely terrible,” he said. “Of course that was against Stacey.”

Against Riverside/Deer Park, WV’s first four shooters, Gabby McClintock, Dawn Salfer, Rhonda Barney and Becky Kuntz scored.

Two of Riverside’s attempts dribbled left of the goal and the celebration began.

“Everyone worked together,” said Roberts. “It was 13 seniors who wanted to go to state.”

Riverside dominated early.

“I don’t think we got a shot in the first half,” said Linton.

Sweeper Cindy Simpson, the Eagles’ last line of defense in front of Roberts, thwarted several breakaway attempts.

“You just do what you’ve got to do and don’t think about it,” Simpson said. “It’s my birthday today and this is a wonderful present.”

Things evened out in the second half but the host team still had some 20 shots on goal without scoring.

Included were three Roberts saves in the final 5 minutes of regulation and three straight attempts in a 30-second span of the second overtime. Roberts held firm.

“Those last 5 minutes were anybody’s game,” said Linton.

He lauded the effort of Riverside and, in particular, goalkeeper Jennifer Higgins.

“She had a real nice performance. Anything less than excellent and there would not have been a shootout,” he said.

It was just that WV had last year’s league MVP in goal at the other end of the field.

G-Prep towers commit

Gonzaga Prep’s twin towers have decided to continue their basketball careers out of state.

Jennifer Williams, a 6-foot-1 second-team all-Greater Spokane League post who averaged 13 points a game, is going to the University of New Mexico and Theresa Palmer, also 6-1, is going to Loyola Marymount.

Both gave oral commitments this week. The official early signing period begins next Wednesday.

“I really like the coach, the school and the team,” Williams said. ” I have a little bit of concern because my parents won’t be able to watch me. I picked it because the weather is nice and the town (Albuquerque).”

Williams picked the Western Athletic Conference Lobos over Pepperdine and Portland of the West Coast Conference.

Palmer, also 6-1 who averaged more than 11 points a game last year, opted for the WCC, choosing Loyola, which is in Los Angeles, and passing on Gonzaga, Brown, Weber State and Pacific.

“I was totally impressed with the coach,” she said. “They put academics and athletics on the same level. They made me feel welcome. I loved the place, basically.”

Palmer didn’t even take her four remaining campus visits after going to Loyola.

, DataTimes