86ers Topple Shadow A-League Vancouver Offers Tough Tuneup

The Spokane Shadow used Saturday night’s exhibition against the Vancouver 86ers as a chance to fine tune their game with just two weeks until the postseason.

The outcome was a 2-1 loss at Albi Stadium, as the 86ers scored first and never relinquished the lead.

“There were 10 to 15 minutes (in the first half) where they capitalized on us,” said Shadow coach Sean Bushey, whose USISL Premier League Northwest Division team is 12-3 in league, 14-3 overall.

The 86ers, a tough USISL West Division A-League team, scored first on a goal by Oliver Heald, who headed Alfredo Valente’s free kick from outside the box past first-time Shadow keeper Pete van de Ven.

Van de Ven, who plays college soccer at the University of Washington, has been with the Spokane club for more than a month and got his first start Saturday.

He finished with seven saves.

“We wanted to give him a chance,” explained Bushey, who also plays Brian Mullen and Josh Fouts at keeper.

Vancouver’s second goal was scored by Aaron Keay, who drove down the middle of the field before beating van de Ven.

Spokane finished with 11 shots on goal.

Dave Berto, Spokane’s leading scorer, put the Shadow within one goal at the 69-minute mark when he landed a penalty kick into the bottom of the right corner of the goal.

The Shadow was awarded the shot when Zane Higgins was brought down inside the box while driving into the goal.

“It’s always good to see a higher level of competition,” said Bushey, the club’s first-year coach.

“In the second half, we had a lot of chances. The ball didn’t cross the line for us.”

The Shadow will play their final regular-season league game next Saturday at 7 p.m. when the Puget Sound BigFoot, currently fighting for a berth to the Northwest Division Tournament, comes to Albi Stadium. Fifth-place Puget Sound stands at 4-7, 8-7 In previous matches this year, Spokane defeated Puget Sound 2-1 on two occasions and 2-0 last weekend.

The Shadow will be the host team for the USISL Premier League Northwest Division tournament. The four-team event will be at Albi Stadium July 26-27.

It is the second straight year Spokane has held a four-team Premier League postseason tournament.

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