Mead, Cheney, NWC in state soccer play
Nov. 14: Mead made the most of its girls soccer season with a return to the state final four.
The Panthers, along with Class 2A Cheney and boys team Northwest Christian, play in the semifinals this weekend in Tacoma. Mead was a state perennial with 18 trips in 19 years between 1984 and 2002, but this is their first since.
The Panthers will earn the school’s 10th top-four state trophy.
Mead (15-2-2) tied for the Greater Spokane League title with a 9-1 record, including two shootout wins. In postseason the Panthers won three of four shootouts, emulating the boys state placers from last year.
The team reached the state semis with a shootout win over unbeaten and nationally ranked Richland, last year’s state runner-up.
Cheney (17-3-1), which left Class 3A and the GSL for the Great Northern League, won a pair of 4-0 matches in the playoffs to reach its first state semifinal.
Coach Marisa Sheldon said she and assistant coach Robyn Smith have similar philosophies. That stood Cheney in good stead when Sheldon missed several weeks because of back surgery.
“I had great support from our staff (including Matt Pollack and Luke Apple). It is unbelievable,” said Sheldon. “I anticipated we would dominate the league and be where we are today.”
Mead plays Stanwood at 8 p.m., and Cheney plays Cedarcrest, noon at Harry Lang Stadium in Lakewood near Tacoma. Northwest Christian’s boys play Moses Lake Christian 6 p.m. at Curtis High.
Prep’s amazing adventure
Nov. 11: Where do you begin describing Gonzaga Prep’s improbable 32-26 comeback victory in overtime against Moses Lake?
It’s a win the stuff of Chip Hilton sports books or maybe those inspirational movies.
After leading 10-0 with 5:47 remaining in the first quarter, in typical Bullpups defensive fashion, things came unglued on a rainy night when both teams gave up the slippery football so often it was hard to keep track.
It was a game they could have and maybe should have lost, considering all the circumstances, or one they could have won several times over, considering they twice reached the 5-yard line and didn’t score and missed three field goals, two on the same possession.
The Bullpups allowed three touchdowns in a four-minute span to trail 26-10, two after interception returns of 31 and 48 yards and the third following a lost fumble. No Moses Lake drive covered more than 39 yards, and the shortest was three.
Things looked bleak.
Then what happens? The Bullpups are admonished to tackle better, stick to their assignments and trust the scheme. They allow a net 10 yards of second-half Chiefs offense.
In the third quarter they block a punt, recover a fumble that leads to a score and block a third-down quick kick. In just over two minutes, Prep scores 10 more points to tie the game.
Prep gets an interception in the resultant overtime tiebreaker and then powers in the winning touchdown, needing 44 yards because of penalties to cover the requisite 25.
I’ve been watching high school football for 38 years but don’t believe I’ve witnessed as wild a game as this.
(Note: Gonzaga hosts Eastlake at 1 p.m. on Saturday.)
Don’t forget Riverside
Nov. 9: One of these days I’ll learn. Don’t always trust information provided on the Internet.
Riverside’s girls soccer team was the first 2A state champion. That information, while in the clippings I’ve carefully collected and have filed in my desk, was not on one of the Washinton Interscholastic Activities Association Web site’s research sites.
Under individual school state history, there was no record that the Rams even had a soccer state girls qualifier, although I could have found it by looking elsewhere, including my newspaper clippings not two feet way. I trusted the WIAA.
And so, erroneously, I reported last Wednesday that West Valley and Cheney were the first Great Northern League teams to win a state girls playoff match. I should have said they won their first state girls playoff matches.
Riverside not only won that first 2A championship in 1997 (how quickly we forget), but the Rams finished second two years later. They and Pullman also won first round contests as recently as 2004.
So the Internet is nice, but from now on I’ll trust myself to something I know best – the printed word. It may take a few minutes longer, but the facts are indisputable.