Soccer Squads Hope To Boot Into Playoffs

For the first time in years, Greater Spokane League boys soccer teams will not be chasing Mead.

Instead, Gonzaga Prep assumes the early role of favorite.

But all of the North Side GSL teams hope to be in the hunt for the league’s five playoff spots.

Perennial power Mead appears to be as good a bet as any for a spot.

Upstart Shadle Park (9-3-4 a year ago) and North Central, with 11 returning letter winners, appear ready to make a run at the top.

Rogers, traditionally the league doormat, has made positive strides and has its coach talking about the playoffs.

“I think we will be able to surprise a few teams with our ability to counterattack,” second-year Rogers coach Chris Sandy said. “We hope to be in the top five and grab one of those playoff spots.”

Here’s a look at how the North Side GSL soccer teams stack up heading into the season.

Mead

The Panthers have a host of young talent coming in to replace the 12 seniors lost to graduation last spring.

Last year’s 13-3-2 team lost to Richland in a shootout in the first round of the Class AAA state tournament a year ago.

Dick Cullen, last year’s GSL Coach of the Year, is in his 11th year and has his work cut out for him.

He lost first team all-league defenders Bret Houck and Chris LaRouchelle.

In addition, he lost the one-two scoring punch of J.J. and Jason Boston, who combined for 16 goals last year, good enough to earn both second team all-league honors.

But there is some good news for the Panthers.

First, history is on their side. Mead has won 11 consecutive GSL soccer titles.

Second, the Panthers will not be completely without defense. They return honorable mention all-league goalkeeper Rich Cullen, the coach’s son.

Third, they have some offensive punch left from last year’s team that scored 55 goals during the regular season. Senior forward Jim Morton, a second-team all-leaguer, found the net 10 times during his junior season and figures to be a force this year.

Finally, midfielders Ryan Minor and Aaron Grubb, both seniors, and Ben Brodsky, a junior, and senior defenders Andy Smid and Aaron Trainer should provide the Panthers with a solid nucleus of players to build a team around.

“I’m real pleased with the way the players have been working,” coach Cullen said. “We are just working to put a quality product on the field.”

North Central

For Indians coach Robin Crain, it’s business as usual.

“It’s the same as always with us,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of depth, so we have to make sure we have an injury-free season.”

The fourth-year coach will rely heavily on senior midfielders Biniam Afenegus, a secondteam all-leaguer a year ago, and Collin Turnbull (seven goals in 1994) to fill the 12-goal void left by the graduation of first-team all-league selection Clayton Thomas.

“Our midfield and defense should be solid, but it’s the two extremes,” Crain said. “If we can score and not give up any easy shots, that will be the difference.

Afenegus, who had three goals and four assists for the 6-9-1 Indians last year, is just one of many midfielders who are back. Senior Sean Merritt and junior Paul Johnson will join Afenegus to make the Indians’ midfield one of the more solid combinations in the league.

The senior trio of Steve Bierig, Mario Williams and Mike Hawley will make up the core of the defense.

“The league’s going to be so even, we could finish anywhere,” Crain said. “Hopefully we will finish in the upper part of league.

It’s always a goal of ours to finish as high as we can, but with the number of seniors we have coming back, a top-four finish would be fairly realistic.

“But, a bottom-four finish would be just as realistic just because of the parity of the league.”

Rogers

If the Pirates are to improve on last year’s 0-15-1 record, they must get the job done on defense.

“We need to focus on team play,” Sandy said. “We must play defense as a unit.”

Last year’s team surrendered a league-high 112 goals, but this year’s squad has set its sights on bringing that number down behind a trio of key returning letter-winners on defense.

Senior goalkeeper Chris Harris will shoulder the bulk of the defensive chores but should get help in front of him from senior Jeff Nett and sophomore Matt Squires.

“We will try to keep some out of the net this year because we were scored on quite often (last year),” Sandy said. “That’s our main focus.”

Offensively, the Pirates were anything but spectacular last year as well, scoring only two goals all year, but the team is expected to improve this year.

Joe Le, who played a year ago as a freshman, once again finds himself up front and in the middle of the Pirates’ attack.

Midfielders Guy Pitini, a senior, Joe Thornton, a sophomore, and Hoa Cao, a junior, each bring another year of experience that Sandy hopes will bring the team together.

“The chemistry is starting to come together,” Sandy said. “That is the most important factor.”

Sandy will rely on the services of three multisport athletes in his lineup as well. Thakou Vu, a senior who played running back on the football team, will shed the shoulder pads in favor of the shin pads and join Le as a forward. Rick Mergenthaler, a 6-foot-1 senior guard for the basketball team, will join the soccer team when the Pirates conclude their run through the post season.

And sophomore forward Sabastian Townsend decided to play soccer instead of running track this spring.

Shadle Park

The Highlanders have set modest goals to open the season, but look for Shadle to be near the top of the standings when it’s all over in the GSL.

“I think we can contend with all those (GSL) teams,” Highlander head coach Stuart Saunders said. “We’re looking to be in the top half of league and in contention for the playoffs.”

There are three reasons why the Highlanders should fair better than just being in the stronger half of the league and “in contention for the playoffs.”

First, there is the scoring punch that junior forward and second team all-league selection Ryan Vaine and senior midfielder Jeremy Stuart should provide. The two combined to tally 12 goals last year, with Vane adding eight assists.

Second, there is the leadership that senior Chris Perry and junior Peter Raber will bring.

Perry and Raber, a second-team all-league performer, have both been starters since their freshman years, but Perry missed his sophomore year because of a knee injury.

Though they have not been starters for as long, Vaine and junior Steven Dixson have been around the program for two years and figure to add experience.

Finally, Raber and Dixson will join senior Ben Janosik to anchor a Highlander defense that lost only two of its mainstays from a year ago. The Highlanders should get a lift from senior letter-winner Ryan Winkey, who returns after spending a good part of the 1994 season sidelined with an injury.

Raber, a two-year starter, and Dixson, who started 15 of 16 games last season, are the most experienced of the four defenders and will be pressed early to protect either a young or an inexperienced goalkeeper.

Sophomore Russ Johnson, who was last year’s backup goalkeeper to second-team allleaguer Jeremy Yedinak, should be pushed by senior Jerry Swanson and junior Cam Schultz for the starting spot between the posts.

Despite the uncertainty in goal, even Saunders conceded that the Highlanders have the necessary pieces to be as or more successful than last year’s best-ever 9-4-4 finish, but he was cautious not to get too excited too early.

“We could be as strong as we were last year, but we won’t have the depth,” the fourth-year coach said.

“I’m kind of unsure about the freshmen. If you count on them, you never know.”