Mt. Spokane advances

The Mt. Spokane Wildcats are trying to make the most of their first trip to the State 3A girls soccer tournament.

Two thread-the-needle passes led to easy breakaway goals in the first half and defense, led by Chelsea Jones, did the rest in a 2-0 victory over visiting Auburn Riverside.

The victory came in the first match of a doubleheader Tuesday evening at Albi Stadium and earned the Wildcats a rematch of last weekend’s regional final, Saturday at West Valley-Yakima in the state quarterfinals.

“This means a lot. It’s just a phenomenal feeling,” said Wildcats coach Ryan Campanella. “It’s been a phenomenal season.”

In the nightcap, last year’s state fourth-place finisher Mead was upset by Redmond, losing 2-1 in the State 4A first round on a goal in the match’s final minute.

Elsewhere, Great Northern League teams West Valley, Cheney and Pullman swept Central Washington Athletic Conference teams, assuring at least one team to the state semifinals.

Mt. Spokane 2, Auburn Riverside 0: Jones was seemingly everywhere blunting Ravens threats, then sending long balls out of harm’s way in helping control the tempo.

“I was a little more pumped for this game,” said the Seattle University-bound Jones, “but across the board it was a great performance from everybody.”

The Wildcats (11-4) beat a team that lost just once in its last 14 contests.

Nearing the midpoint of the half, center midfielder Delaney Zalud passed through the Auburn Riverside (12-4-3) defense and found speedy forward Averi Hallman who had clear sailing to the goal.

Then, with 2 minutes left in the half, Alli Floyd returned the favor getting another through-ball to Zalud. She booted the ball into the right side of the goal.

“We definitely spread the love around,” said Campanella of a team that has a wealth of goal-scoring athletes. “That’s a nice thing to have as a coach.”

“It feels good right now. We played very well. It was all there tonight,” Jones said. “We’re down to the Elite Eight.”

Redmond 2, Mead 1: The fortunes in a soccer match can change dramatically, as the Panthers found out.

In a fast-paced first half, Mead struck first 30 minutes in on a brilliant spin-move goal by Marissa Mykines. But the Mustangs (10-5-4) countered almost immediately with scoring leader Katie Woodman.

In the second half, the Panthers had the ball in Redmond’s end of the field nearly for the duration, peppering goalkeeper Kat Donovan with shot after shot. In a rare Mustangs foray with time running out, the ball popped open in the middle and Erin Handschin found herself 1-on-1 in front of the goal where she hit the winner.

“That’s the second game we ran into a solid goal keeper and couldn’t put one in,” said Mead coach Steve Snider.

The Panthers (14-3) outshot the visitors 21-6, but Donovan was brilliant, diving, deflecting and smothering 18 shots.

State 2A

Kaitlin Whitfield had three goals, two coming in the final 10 minutes of the match, to guide Cheney to a 3-1 win over East Valley (Yakima) in the first round of the tournament in Yakima. Whitfield scored her first goal in the 35th minute to give the Blackhawks (17-3) a tie heading into halftime and scored her second goal off an assist from Kellie Zakrzewski in the 70th minute. Zakrzewski also assisted on Whitfield’s final goal in the 73rd minute. … In another opener, Kayla Courchaine’s unassisted goal in the 16th minute gave West Valley a 1-0 win over visiting Prosser. Eagles goalkeeper Karina Carpenter made seven saves. West Valley (16-4) advances to play at Cheney in the quarterfinals. … Jessica Thomas scored in the 63rd minute to break a tie and give Pullman a 2-1 win over host Selah. Jordan Isom gave the Vikings a 1-0 advantage with a goal in the 23rd minute, but the Greyhounds’ Raina D’Aleo responded with a goal in the 36th minute to tie the match. Pullman (18-3) advances to play Burlington in the quarterfinals.