Shadow Renders Cascade Surgeless Two Early Goals Boost Spokane To Easy 6-0 Victory
How hallowed is the World Cup?
An item in the Spokane Shadow’s weekly press notes advises that the team’s executive office will cease operations during all World Cup matches for the remainder of soccer’s premier event currently unfolding in Paris.
The Cascade Surge, however, seemed intent on doing the Shadow one better Saturday night at Albi Stadium by ceasing all on-field operations less than 15 minutes into their USISL Northwest Division mismatch against Spokane.
The result was a lopsided 6-0 win for the Shadow, who raised their division-leading record to 6-1 behind early goals by Brian Ching and Brett Houck.
Whether the Surge’s disappearing act might have been tied to some sort of strange reverence for the World Cup remains open for debate. But it was obvious that the collective interest of Cascade players was somewhere other than on the soccer task at hand - especially after Spokane delighted a crowd of less than 1,000 by jumping to a 2-0 lead just 13 minutes into the match.
Ching scored the first of his two goals by heading in Chris LaRochelle’s corner kick with less than 6 minutes gone, and Houck did the same off another LaRochelle corner kick 7 minutes later.
Shadow coach Sean Bushey would like to think it was his team’s early aggressiveness rather than a World Cup distraction that turned the Salem (Ore.)-based Surge into spectators.
“There was a period of time there after that first goal when things were a little on edge and they had some opportunities to come at us,” Bushey admitted. “But when we got that second goal it was like, ‘Oh, man.’ When you give up two goals like that on corners, it can have a real deflating effect.”
And just in case those early goals weren’t devastating enough, the Shadow hit the Surge with three more first-half scores before Alika Cosner wrapped up the scoring with an unassisted rocket past Cascade goalkeeper Michael Patron 79 minutes into the match.
Ching scored his second goal on the first of Keiran Barton’s two assists in the 36th minute and Jeff McAllister took a pass from Barton and beat Patron 4 minutes later to give Spokane a 4-0 lead.
The Shadow’s final goal of the first half came in the 43rd minute when Joe Marks scored on an assist from Ching.
Bushey was pleased, but not surprised, by his team’s strong start, which came on the heels of Friday night’s 4-1 win against the Okanagan Challenge in Kelowna, British Columbia.
“Because of the travel, we talked about the importance of a quick start,” he explained. “We were concerned about fatigue and wanted to fight through it - which is what we did.
“Still, it was a good thing we followed that first goal with another.”
The Shadow will play at home again Friday against Puget Sound Bigfoot before traveling to Salem on Saturday for a rematch against the Surge.