Group strength

In many ways, Josh Peck has the easiest job of all.

The East Valley High School senior minds the nets for the three-time Greater Spokane League champion Knights, who extend their season today at 11 a.m. with a first-round state playoff game against West Valley-Yakima at Gonzaga Prep.

It’s a good job, and Peck does it well. But it’s not exactly demanding.

“It’s so easy to play goal behind our defense,” Peck laughed. “I don’t have to do a whole lot. I make, maybe, one or two plays every game – mostly off corner kicks, actually – and then they credit me with the shutout.

“It is so easy playing behind the defense we have. This is the best group I’ve ever played with.”

The Knights posted shutouts in eight of their nine GSL victories, putting up a 9-1 league record (9-4 overall). And while Peck downplays his role, he has allowed only two goals in GSL games this season.

A third-straight league title isn’t a surprise. Peck, defender and team captain Matt Miller, center back Josh Polello and forward Cole Abramson each was an All-GSL first-team selection last year. Peck is a virtual lock to earn a third-straight All-GSL first-team nod this year.

“I’ve known most of the guys I play with now since kindergarten,” Peck said. “We’ve been playing together since we first joined a development league as 11 and 12 year olds.”

Abramson, Miller, Peck, Polello, Marcus Intinarelli, Dino Valdez, Jordan Selland and Matt Schneidmiller have played hundreds of games together with the Spokane Valley Express under coach Bob Escobar.

“I know these guys so well that I can stand on the sidelines and tell you when they’re going to make a move and what move they’re going to make,” Abramson said. “I can tell you exactly when one of my teammates is going to shoot and where the ball’s going to go. It’s a blast.

“It’s exactly like a basketball team that’s played forever – you just know where everyone is going to be at any given time. You don’t have to look – you just make the play.”

That level of confidence makes the 2007 Knights a more potent squad than the 2006 squad that featured GSL offensive player of the year Ben Funkhouser.

“No offense to Ben, because he’s a great player and I learned a lot playing with him,” Miller said. “But we didn’t have that same level with him because none of us had played with him until we got here. We kind of took our cues from him. He made great plays and did terrific things on the field. But we didn’t play with the level of confidence we’ve played with this year.”

Abramson, who led the GSL in scoring a year ago with 16 goals, leads the Knights this season with seven.

“I haven’t had to score as much this year,” he said. “That’s because we have so many other weapons. Even Matt Miller and Josh Polello can come up and score from the back row – and Josh has an incredible leg, so he’s dangerous from long range. That makes us a tough team to defend. You can’t just shut down one player.”

The key to every East Valley team under coach Jeff Rose, who will resign at the end of the season after completing graduate school, is defense.

“Our approach this year has been to go out and score a goal as fast as we call and then turn the game over to our defense,” Miller said.

The No. 1 GSL seed in the Class 3A playoffs, the Knights have the right to host today’s playoff game – and their next game if they win.

But the game had to be moved from East Valley to Gonzaga Prep.

“Now that we’re in the playoffs, we have to charge admission,” Rose said. “We tried doing that the last time we hosted a game. (Athletics director) Joe Kostecka went around with a bucket and asked for donations, but he only collected about $25. So we’re moving the game to Gonzaga Prep and the artificial turf.”

West Valley-Yakima (6-4), is the No. 4 seed from the Columbia Basin Class 3A League.

The Knights don’t have a scouting report on the Rams, but Abramson, for one, wants a little payback.

“I think we played them and lost couple years ago in the playoffs,” he said. “But they’re the ones who came up here and beat us in the football playoffs. I’d love to score a couple goals against these guys and end their season the way they ended ours last fall.”

The end of this soccer season, whenever it comes, will be an end of an era for the East Valley seniors.

“This is it for us together,” Peck said. “After this, some of us go off to play in college. Matt Miller and I are going to play at Spokane Falls Community College, and that should be a very good team, too. We know most of the GSL players heading out there and we play indoor soccer with the SFCC guys all the time.

“Cole Abramson is going to play soccer at North Idaho College.”

“It’s going to be strange learning to play with a whole new team next year,” Abrahamson said.

Polello will continue kicking – just not soccer balls, Peck said.

“He’s going to go down and walk-on at Washington State and try to be their next kicker,” he said. “It’s going to be so cool watching him kick on Saturdays.”