Shadow Roll Another Lucky Seven Spokane Posts Second Consecutive 7-0 Shutout

The opponent changed, but the score remained the same.

For the second consecutive game, the Spokane Shadow outplayed its opponent and came away with a 7-0 win, this one over the Okanagan Challenge of Kelowna, British Columbia, before a small gathering at Albi Stadium on Friday night.

“Scoring that many goals doesn’t happen too often, at least not to my teams,” said second-year Shadow coach Sean Bushey, who also coaches at Whitworth College.

The scoring surplus came one night before the Shadow (2-0) play host to the Seattle Sounders in the most anticipated test of the season. The Sounders are an A-League team, two levels above the Shadow.

But for now, Spokane is beating up on its own level, scoring 14 goals in two games.

The Shadow opened USISL Premier League Northwest Division season last Satruday and defeated the Abbotsford Challenge by the same score. They continued to show no mercy on Okanagan, another league newcomer, when Brian Ching found Chad Brown streaking through the midfield just 7 minutes into the game.

Brown drilled a shot from 18 yards out that flew past Challenge keeper Jason Bekar. That set the tone for the night as Spokane took 19 shots on Bekar, who finished with six saves.

The Challenge (0-1), one of four division teams playing a provisional schedule this year, unloaded just seven shots on Shadow keeper Josh Fouts. The second-year starter had four saves and was credited with his second consecutive shutout while dropping his goals-against average to under one per game.

Fouts’ teammates gave him a huge cushion by scoring five goals in the first half.

Brown, a 1994 Central Valley graduate who plays college soccer at Fresno State, finished with one goal and three assists.

“They’ve got some good players, but they’re a first-year team,” said Brown, a junior who led Fresno State in scoring this year. “It’s still tough to score six, seven goals in a game.”

Ching knocked in the second goal from inside the penalty area at 21:00.

Ching’s Gonzaga University teammate, Jeff McAllister followed with back-to-back goals. His second goal was the most entertaining of the night. It came off a 35-yard shot by Kieran Barton that hit the crossbar and kicked straight up. McAllister was there to put it in at 42 minutes.

Barton scored his third goal of the season to open the second-half, scoring at 61 minutes. Bret Houck and Craig Waibel also scored.

“We’ve taken it at these teams,” Bushey said. “And we’ve scored good goals. It hasn’t been sloppy things by the other teams.

“But we’ll have a much tougher game (tonight).”

This will be the second exhibition meeting between the Shadow and the Sounders. The Sounders won here two years ago, 3-0.

This sidebar appeared with the story: COMING UP Tonight: Shadow vs. Seattle Sounders, 7:05, Albi Stadium Radio: KKPL (630)