CdA responds in second half

Jordon Eborall was so infuriated after a scoreless first half – both for himself and the Coeur d’Alene High boys soccer team – that he held his tongue during the 5-minute intermission.

“I didn’t talk to anybody because I needed to score,” said Eborall, a sophomore forward who leads the Vikings in scoring. “I get mad when I don’t do something good.”

Eborall’s frustration lasted less than 20 seconds after halftime when he scored on a breakaway that sparked CdA to a 3-1 win over Timberline in a State 5A tournament opener Thursday at Lake City High School.

Lake City, meanwhile, dodged shot after shot before Boise finally broke through late for a 1-0 decision in a match played in a steady drizzle.

In the other openers, defending state champ Mountain View handled Madison 2-0 and Idaho Falls upset Centennial 2-1.

CdA 3, Timberline 1: The Vikings found themselves in a rare situation 20 minutes into the match. They were behind. That’s happened just twice this year.

Ryan McEntee, whom the Vikings thought was offsides, chipped a shot past Vikings goalkeeper Marc Hilbert to put the Wolves ahead 1-0.

“Their guy was about 10 feet offsides and we all figured (the referee) would call it,” Hilbert said. “We should have played through. We were just standing on our heels. We stopped playing. We anticipated the call and we shouldn’t have done that.”

The Vikings appeared flat the rest of the first half.

“It took us about 30 minutes to figure out that we were playing soccer,” CdA coach Eric Louis said.

Eborall’s goal was not only an equalizer, but it seemed to wake up the Vikings.

“I got a beautiful pass from Cameron (Vandall),” Eborall said. “I had opportunities in the first half. My coach told me at halftime to take an extra touch and calm down and just kick it.”

CdA’s second goal came off a corner kick. Cameron Vandall, who had the assist on the first goal, entered the ball and Robby Astin headed it toward the goal. But Timberline’s goalie deflected it toward the Vikings’ Jon Latorre, who knocked in the carom to put CdA ahead 2-1 with 15 minutes to go.

“We just crashed the net,” Latorre said. “That’s what we do in those situations. Anybody can score. I just happened to be the one today.”

Eborall added the third goal – and his 15th overall – off a pass from Forrest Walker in the 73rd minute.

Louis didn’t recognize his team in the first half.

“We couldn’t get a good first touch, we couldn’t move off the ball, we couldn’t get organized, we couldn’t see where we ought to be sending the ball (and) we couldn’t see anything but (Timberline) blue,” Louis said.

The Vikings’ response in the final 40 minutes is what they’ll need against the defending state champ.

“(Mountain View) has a couple of serious attackers,” Louis said. “They’ve got a couple of guys who’ll be playing (NCAA) Division I next year. I think we’ll have to make some adjustments to those guys, but for the most part Vikings soccer is on a roll. If we play Friday like we did in the second half, we’ll give ourselves every opportunity.”

Boise 1, LC 0: The margin was one goal, but it should have been more.

The Braves pounded shots from all directions at LC freshman goalie Nick Higgs, but he didn’t budge. He finished with 17 saves.

“For a 14-year-old who is undersized to say the least, he played his tail off,” LC coach Chad Beadell said. “He was poised, calm, cool.”

Boise had to go until the 75th minute before scoring the winner. On a throw-in play, Wil Larson flicked the ball toward the goal and John Di Lulo finished.

“We were fortunate to get one there at the end,” Boise coach Mike Darrow said. “I thought we were going to get one the first minute of the game. We had a really good opportunity but just put it wide.”

Darrow was impressed with Higgs.

“He made some big saves,” Darrow said. “He had very good reflexes. He’s not the biggest kid, but reflex-wise he can play.”

Another LC freshman, defender Chris Wheelock, drew the assignment of marking Boise junior forward Erik Nielsen, one of the top players in the state.

“He did a wonderful job,” Beadell said of Wheelock. “We were trying to be cautious because they throw so many numbers at you. It seems like they bring a house at you every time. We were trying to sit back, get possession and counter out of it. We had a few opportunities out of counters that we couldn’t capitalize on.”

Beadell had nothing but praise for his team.

“I think it’s our most complete game we’ve played,” Beadell said. “I couldn’t be happier. Yes, we want to win it, but sometimes it doesn’t work that way. We played as hard as we could, and some days you just can’t win.”