Cheney, Pullman triumph

Sophomore Hilary Martin converted a penalty kick in the fourth round of the sudden-death shootout to give the Cheney Blackhawks a 3-2 victory over the West Valley Eagles Thursday at Cheney and earn spots in the District 7 2A girls soccer championship game and State 2A tournament.

The second-seeded Blackhawks (12-4) will face the regular season-champion Pullman Greyhound (15-2), a 4-1 winner over the Deer Park Stags (10-8), on Saturday at noon at Plantes Ferry Park for state seeding.

Laura Estey and Alex Fraser scored goals in the first 11 minutes to give West Valley (14-2) a 2-0 lead. But Cheney’s Kellie Zakrzewski answered with two goals – one in each half – to tie the game at 2.

After a scoreless overtime period, the teams were tied with four goals apiece after five shots in the shootout. In the sudden-death portion of the shootout, both teams missed the first two shots and made their third shot. Martin then converted on her kick, before West Valley missed, ending its season.

At Pullman, Kendra Heim scored the go-ahead goal with a direct free kick from 23 yards out at 60 minutes to lead the Greyhounds over the Stags in loser-out play.

Volleyball

District 7 2A: Bi-County League teams were dominant over their Panorama League counterparts on the first day of the event at Reardan. The Colfax Bulldogs, Davenport Gorillas, Northwest Christian Crusaders and Lind-Ritzville Broncos each won first-round matches. Bi-County No. 1 Colfax beat Bi-County No. 5 Reardan 23-25, 25-21, 25-12, 25-14 and will face Bi-Co No. 3 NWC in the semifinals Saturday. NWC defeated Panorama No. 1 Springdale. Bi-Co No. 2 Davenport earned their spot in the semifinals with a 25-11, 25-7, 25-12 win over Panorama No. 3 Republic. The Gorillas will face Bi-Co No. 4 Lind-Ritzville, a 25-9, 25-10, 25-23 winner over Panorama No. 2 St. George’s. … The semifinals will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Reardan. The championship match is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. … In loser-out matches, St. George’s rebounded to beat Republic and will face the Colfax/NWC loser at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. … Reardan came back to defeat Springdale 25-17, 25-18, 25-20 and will face the Lind-Ritzville/Davenport loser.

District 9 2B: At Pomeroy, the Tekoa-Oakesdale Nighthawks and the Liberty Christian Patriots each claimed two victories and will meet Saturday at 1 p.m. for the No. 1 seed to state. … The Nighthawks beat Waitsburg-Prescott 25-6, 25-9, 25-11 and Dayton 25-13, 25-11, 25-17 while the Patriots dropped Asotin 25-10, 25-16, 25-7 and Pomeroy 25-18, 25-21, 23-25, 25-27, 15-7. … In loser’s bracket play, Garfield-Palouse overcame its first-round loss to Dayton (25-15, 25-12,23-25, 25-23) to eliminate Waitsburg-Prescott 25-21, 25-13, 25-21 while DeSales, a first-round loser to Pomeroy (25-7, 21-25, 17-25, 25-19, 15-4), eliminated Asotin (14-25, 25-10, 25-18, 25-20. … Two teams advance to the state tournament at Yakima’s SunDome.

District 9 1B: St. John-Endicott swept Colton-Pullman Christian at Colfax and will play for the district title Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at Pomeroy. The Eagles will play LaCrosse-Washtucna, a four-set winner over Tri-Cities Prep.

Cross country

CJ Helbling of Lake City and Kinsey Gomez of Coeur d’Alene were selected as the Idaho District I boys and girls, respectively, runners of the year, as selected by District I coaches. Helbling and Gomez each finished second at the Idaho State 5A championships last weekend. For the complete All-District teams, see Scoreboard on page C4.