CdA, LC settle for tie
Tuesday’s Lake City at Coeur d’Alene boys soccer match was a bit of an enigma.
A whole lot of things happened, and, in the end, not much happened.
In their first meeting of the season, the Inland Empire League and cross-town rivals battled to a 1-all tie.
The Vikings remained unbeaten but outplayed the Timberwolves and have to feel like they let one get away.
The Timberwolves, dealing with a recent spate of injuries, seemed to lack intensity at times and were outshot 14-7.
What that was, exactly, was hard for LC coach Chad Beadell to put his finger on.
“I thought Coeur d’Alene outplayed us for the most part, from start to finish,” Beadell said. “We didn’t have our sequence going well for us, and they outplayed us, I thought.
“They won the ball in the air a lot and (senior defenseman) Jason Vetsch played very well for Coeur d’Alene – I don’t want to downplay (the significance of earning a tie), but we didn’t come out ready to go.”
The Vikings (9-0-1 overall, 5-0-1 IEL) got on the board first, in the 15th minute, when senior midfielder Cameron Vandall dribbled through three defenders and fired a right-footer from the top of the penalty box past Timberwolves keeper Scott Fraser, who had seven saves to match counterpart Marc Hilbert of CdA.
Lake City (5-2-1, 4-1-1) got the equalizer in the 31st minute when senior forward Evan Palo, just medically cleared to play prior to the contest, ripped an arcing 25-yard free kick into the top-right corner that slid off the hands of Hilbert.
Both teams had at least one big chance to win the game outright.
The Timberwolves had theirs in the waning moments of the first half when junior defenseman Nick Lenihan got past Jalon Eborall on the right end line and fired from point blank on Hilbert.
Hilbert turned the shot away before Logan Frederickson fired again on the rebound, which Hilbert just got a hand on and sent wide right.
CdA had a wilder flurry in the 80th minute, knocking the ball back and forth in the LC goalmouth before Fraser and the T-Wolves were able to clear.
Afterward, Vikings coach Eric Louis, who called the win a moral victory for Lake City, wasn’t exactly effusive.
“It was really weird,” Louis said. “Usually, we’re a pretty good rhythm team and the guys respond to each other.
“They did a good job of crowding us. Chad is a very good tactical coach and he did a nice job of making some adjustments and getting his guys to disrupt us.”
Eborall and Lenihan received red cards for an incident late in the match and will each have to sit out their teams’ next contest.