Cheney comes up shy in 3A quarterfinals

One goal was all it took to bring the Cheney Blackhawks’ playoff run to an end.

In a game that matched two strong defenses, Ben Salmon of Lakeside (Seattle) headed home a corner kick with 2 minutes, 30 seconds left Saturday as the Lions knocked off Cheney in the quarterfinals of the State 3A tournament at Cheney High School.

“Our team has always fought 100 percent all year long,” Cheney coach Steve Davis said. “So I knew that whatever there was left on the clock, we would be fighting.”

The Blackhawks (16-5) did fight back.

Cheney maintained possession for most of the remainder of the game, and with time just about to run out, a scrum in the Lakeside penalty box resulted in a Lions handball and a Cheney penalty kick.

But the Blackhawks couldn’t capitalize, and Lakeside moved on to the semifinals Friday against Mercer Island.

“We were ready for the game, we just didn’t follow though,” Cheney senior Jesse Retan said. “We had a couple of chances at the end where we could have tied it, but we just couldn’t.”

“We fought hard against a good team,” Davis said. “They (Lakeside) got the job done. We had our chances, and we had a big chance at the finish and it just didn’t happen for us. But we fought hard the whole game.”

As the crowd left and the field cleared, a muddy Retan slowly walked to the sideline to the open arms of his coach. After a moment, he turned and headed off the field with the rest of the team.

“This group works as a team,” Davis said. “They work hard together and they fight together. It has been a great year for them. Unfortunately, they didn’t make it a couple of more steps.”