Shadow Take Apart Yakima

Kieran Barton scored on a free kick in the first half and Brian Ching and Chris LaRochelle added second-half goals Friday to lift the Spokane Shadow past the Yakima Reds 3-1 in a USISL Premier League Northwest Division game at Yakima.

The win put some distance between division-leading Spokane (10-2) and second-place Yakima (8-3). The two will meet again tonight at 7:05 in Albi Stadium.

Friday night’s game remained scoreless for the first 24 minutes before the Shadow’s Jeff McAllister took a free kick from 22 yards out. He rolled the ball to Barton, who scored his sixth goal of the season on a line drive.

“The speed of our attack gets other teams confused,” Spokane defender Stuart Saunders said. “Plus, teams concentrate on Brian Ching, so it makes it tough.”

Ching, the Premier League’s national point and goal leader, scored his 14th goal of the year at 46:00. He intercepted a lazy pass at the midfield and slipped past keeper Derek Collins to give the visitors a 2-0 lead.

Spokane added its third goal at the 77-minute mark when Collins, formerly of Whitworth College, tried to play the ball up the field. LaRochelle took it from him and shot from 12 yards out.

Yakima’s Luiz Marcello Machado broke up a shutout for Shadow keeper Josh Fouts when he scored late in the game.

The Inland Empire East-West High School All-Star games will be played before tonight’s Shadow game. The boys game is scheduled for 4 p.m. The girls will play at 5:15.