Shadow come up just short
It was close, but no cigar.
A festive atmosphere surrounded the start of Saturday’s Spokane Shadow match, as the team celebrated the birth of coach Kieran Barton’s first child, 8-pound Nicholas Cruz Barton, who arrived at 2 a.m.
Unfortunately, the buoyant mood, spurred on by a 2-0 start to the Premier Development League season by the Shadow, was short-lived.
The Shadow, who had allowed just one goal in their first two starts, gave Cascade a 4-1 lead before staging a comeback effort that came up just short, 4-3 at Albi Stadium.
“I think we learned a lot about ourselves, especially in the second half,” an exhausted Barton said. “I think the first two games we played teams that we were obviously better than and we didn’t have to raise our level of play to win. Cascade is a better team. If we’re going to beat them, we’re going to have to play our best.”
Both Spokane and the Salem, Ore.-based Surge posted 11-4-1 records a year ago and each qualified for the PDL playoffs. Cascade posted a win and a tie in its first two starts this season. The victory moved the Surge (2-0-1) into first place in the Northern Division with seven points, one point ahead of Spokane (2-1-0).
Spokane fell behind for the first time this season when Luke Williams set up the first of three first-half goals, driving deep down the right side of the Spokane defense to launch a powerful crossing pass to Matthew Clark 15 minutes into the match to give the Surge a 1-0 lead.
Spokane came right back. Lamar Kumangai-McGee scored his second goal in as many days, punching home a crossing pass after a Shadow free kick at the 23-minute mark.
From there, Williams took over. The lanky forward continually attacked the right side to launch centering passes.
In the 34th minute, Williams fired a hard, belt-high cross in front of Spokane goalkeeper Will Cooper that Kumangai-McGee knocked down, but the ball’s rotation carried into the goal – an unfortunate result to a fine defensive play.
“That’s what I told Lamar as we were going up the steps at halftime,” Barton said. “If he doesn’t make that play, their guy probably scores anyway. He made a good play.”
Williams found Clark for a second time in the 44th minute, putting Spokane in a hole to start the second half. The hole became deeper 12 minutes into the second half when Andriy Brudnyy came free at midfield and beat Cooper on an unassisted breakaway to make it 4-1.
“I still say that goal was offside,” Barton said. “But you never win those arguments.”
The Shadow came back strongly in the final 30 minutes, missing two attempts to tie the match in the final minutes.
Dustin Allberry scored off a penalty kick by Brett Hite in the 68th minute. Hite fired a low ball around two Cascade defenders that Allberry deflected into the corner of the net.
Allberry scored again with 8 minutes left, pulling the Shadow within a goal at 4-3.
Jake Moug just missed scoring in the 88th minute. Seconds later, Hite missed a cross when the ball nicked a defender’s heel and trickled wide.
“I think if you’d told me before that we’d be 2-1 after three games, I’d have been happy,” Barton said. “We’re young. I worked a bunch of our young guys into the game (Friday) night and tonight just to get their first taste of the game.
“This is a different game from high school soccer or club soccer. It’s faster and it’s more physical.”
The Shadow started the game without Alex Megson, who dislocated a toe in the season opener with Yakima, and Gonzaga University standout Scott Campbell, who pulled a hamstring Friday night against Abbotsford. Campbell was named to the PDL Team of the Week for his play against Yakima.