Lakeside Soccer Makes Strides

Thu., Oct. 12, 2000

By Janie McCauley janiem@spokesman.com

Yosef Afenegus had a vision when he took over as the Lakeside girls soccer coach last fall.

He wanted to help the Eagles become one of the top teams in the Great Northern League and a playoff contender year after year.

Lakeside is making a statement this fall. The Eagles are in first place in the league with their only loss coming to Riverside. The Eagles also beat the Rams earlier in the season, handing Riverside its first GNL loss in league history.

Lakeside finally knows it can win, Afenegus said, and the younger players have developed more quickly than he expected.

“We have talent but finally we’re playing as a group and that’s working for us,” he said. “At the beginning of the season we always do fundamentals for the girls who haven’t played soccer before. They had the athletic ability and were able to catch up.”

And winning some big games - such as the 2-1 win over Riverside on Sept. 7 and a 4-2 victory over Pullman on Sept. 28 - helped build the team’s confidence.

Winning the GNL would mean hosting the playoffs, something that only Riverside has done in past years.

Afenegus knows its possible.

“We were successful during the first part of the season going 5-0,” he said. “We have to come out and do the same thing and practice the way we have and start all over again and not look back to the games we have won.”

Lacie Wilson, the league’s third-leading scorer with 11 goals, missed last Tuesday’s 2-1 double-overtime loss to Riverside because she had the flu.

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