Surge eliminate Shadow
It’s rare to see six goals in a soccer game. It’s even more rare to see the score so one-sided, but the scoreboard at Joe Albi Stadium on Saturday night reflected the play on the field: Surge 5, Shadow 1.
The Spokane Shadow were eliminated from postseason play as the Cascade Surge dominated to clinch first place in the Premier Developmental League Northwest Division with a 5-1 win before a crowd of 1,417.
Led by Stephen Rigby, who had two goals and one assist – all in the first half, the Surge (11-2-2, 35 points) jumped on top of the Shadow (9-5-0, 27) with three goals in the first 36 minutes to snap their five-game winning streak.
“The score should never be like that,” said Shadow captain Brett Hite. “We beat them 3-1 earlier this year. They score a couple of quick goals and we just got panicky. At halftime, there were a lot of angry and frustrated people, and it was to their advantage.”
In the second half, with Spokane mostly on the attack, Cascade’s Andriy Budnyy and Carlos Calderson perfectly timed a counterattack that allowed Budnyy to get past the Shadow defenseman near the midfield.
With Budnyy streaking through the heart of the field, keeper Dade Smith moved up to meet the forward near the top of the box, but Budnyy shot the ball past Smith and dashed any hopes of a comeback at the 67th minute.
“You can come back from 3-1,” said Hite, “but 4-1 is a whole different ballgame.”
With the game in check, Cascade got a fifth goal in the 74th minute from Josh Westermann on an assist from Troy Ready.
“We dug a deep hole in the first half,” said Spokane coach Stuart Saunders, who filled in for suspended head coach Kieran Barton, who received a red card against Abbotsford last Sunday. “They knew they could kill the game and sat back.”
Rigby opened the scoring in the 29th minute on a pass from Jeremy Tolleson. Rigby then returned the favor 11 minutes later as his corner kick found Scott Bolkan inside the box.
With eight minutes remaining in the half, Rigby increased the Surge’s lead to three as he took the pass from Calderson off a free kick and rifled a shot from 25 yards out past Smith.
“We broke down defensively,” said Smith. “They came out ready to play … and they wanted it more.”
The Shadow caught a celebrating Surge by surprise three minutes later as Dustin Allberry found the back of the net for Spokane’s lone goal on an unassisted play.
“We didn’t have the intensity,” said Allberry. “(Barton) takes care of that, and it just wasn’t there tonight.”
The Shadow will play at Yakima on Friday and finish out the season at Cascade on July 24.
Notes
Midfielder Elliot Fauske was also serving a suspension for receiving a red card on July 10. … Saunders, after five years as head coach of the Shadow, was promoted to technical director prior to the start of the season.