Ferris Pulls The Impossible With 1-0 Win Over Mead
Prep soccer
Mead jumped and Ferris jumped for joy.
Ferris became the first Greater Spokane League team in more than four years to defeat Mead in a girls soccer game, shocking the Panthers 1-0 in the Just-A-Kick/District 8 championship game Wednesday at cold and windy Albi Stadium.
Ferris sophomore Angela Faridnia blasted a shot through the Mead wall from 12 yards in the 16th minute. The indirect kick was started on a touch by Karie Pruett.
“I just drilled in as fast as I could,” Faridnia said. I figured on most balls they’ll jump so I hit it on the ground and it went right under them.”
It was Mead’s first loss before a state playoff quarterfinal game since Central Valley edged the Panthers 1-0 in the eighth game of the 1991 season.
Ferris will stay home to play Big Nine runner-up Richland at 1 p.m. Saturday, while Mead goes to Kennewick to play Kamiakin at the same time.
Mead had its best chance in the opening minute when the ball was bounced around in front of the Ferris net. The game ended when the Panthers couldn’t connect on a header from about 10 yards.
“I was nervous,” Ferris keeper Kelly McCaffery said of the final shot. “I don’t know if I really touched it. I just kind of closed my eyes and went for it.”
Mead coach Dick Cullen said he was disappointed with the way his team played - not with the loss - and said some of that could be blamed on a long layoff the league champions are faced with while their opponent is determined. Ferris played three games since Mead’s last game of the regular season.
“You can’t play that badly and expect to win,” he said. “You have to hand Ferris a lot of credit. You have to thank … the GSL for the 14 days off. We didn’t play with a lot of poise and we played like we’re rusty.”
Ferris lost 2-0 at Kamiakin and won 1-0 at Richland early in the season. Mead has not played either team but beat both in the playoffs last year en route to finishing third in the state.
If either Big Nine team wins Saturday, the quarterfinals next weekend are at the Big Nine site. Mead and Kamiakin have played in the quarter-finals the last four years with the home team winning.
“It’s a different twist this year, we go to Kamiakin first,” Cullen said. “I told the girls the road to state goes through Kennewick.”
State AA/A girls
Frontier League representative West Valley makes its first state appearance since 1991 when it hosts Mid-Valley No. 2 Othello at 2 p.m. Saturday in the first round.
The winner advances to a Nov. 15 or 16 quarterfinal against either Mid-Valley No. 1 West Valley (Yakima) or Mid-Valley No. 3 Hanford.
WV finished one point behind Deer Park/Riverside in the league race, but edged DP/R in a district shootout Tuesday.
District 7-A/B boys
Northwest Christian and St. George’s play for seeding to region at 2 p.m. Friday at the Complex.
The No. 1 seed draws District 5 No. 2 Sunnyside Christian, while the NWC/St. George’s loser plays District 5 No. 1 Wahluke. Both matches are Nov. 14 at Kennewick’s Lampson Field. The regional title match, for a berth in the state semifinals, is Nov. 16 at Kennewick.
, DataTimes