East Valley boys soccer has chemistry now

Coaches like to talk a lot about chemistry in the early weeks of a new season.

It’s part of the intangible magic of a team that, when it all comes together, goes a long way toward making a team greater than the sum of its parts.

Gabe Escobar is talking about chemistry, too. But the East Valley boys soccer coach is talking in terms of Advanced Chem.

“With the exception of my keeper, I have my entire back line back from last year,” he explained. “Defensively that puts us a lot farther than the road than we were at this time last year.”

The Knights defense is led by All-Great Northern League selection Joseph Gresch and honorable mention pick Zach Bowsky, both juniors.

“That’s what’s kind of exciting about these guys,” Escobar said. “Aside from my keeper, Kohl Tomcho, who’s a senior, they’ll all be back next year.”

Also back is All-GNL second team midfielder Kyle Richardson.

The Knights got off to a fast start Saturday, posting a 6-0 win over Mt. Spokane. All-GNL first-teamer Devonte Gorman scored a pair of goals and an assist in the win.

Tuesday the Class 2A Knights faced their second Greater Spokane League squad when Class 4A Ferris came to East Valley and posted a 2-1 win in a tough, defensive battle.

“I think we got away from what we do,” Escobar said. “We got excited about playing Ferris and didn’t play the game the way we can. I was disappointed in that and we definitely talked about that at halftime. We’ll fix that.”

Ferris scored in the 16th minute of the first half and took a 1-0 lead into intermission. The Saxons added a second goal in the 58th minute of the second half before East Valley’s Marc Coma halved the lead five minutes later.

East Valley had chances in the closing stages of the game with several set pieces in the Ferris end.

“We did a good job of fighting back,” Escobar said. “We’re going to have our chances. We graduated two seniors from last year who played outside midfield for us. Our strength coming back is in the back end and up the middle. We need to find some guys to take over on the outside.

“We can be pretty good. I honestly think that if we were still in the GSL we would be somewhere in the mix and in the GNL we’ll be there fighting it out. Mt. Spokane is good and Ferris always has a strong team and is a very good program.”

So far, East Valley has allowed just two goals against GSL competition, with seven goals scored. Gorman now has two goals and two assists against teams with traditionally solid defenses.

The GNL will once again be an all-out battle. Teams will play each other three times during the regular season. By the end of the year, Escobar jokes, there will be absolutely no secrets between any of the teams in the league.

A year ago the only GNL team to reach the Class 2A state tournament was Pullman, who lost a decision to Quincy in the first round.

The Greyhounds graduated the league’s offensive player of the year, Matt Winchell, and the defensive player of the year, Mason Petrino, and key players up and down the field.

East Valley reached the playoffs, but came up short of the big dance.

West Valley got off to a strong start to the season, knocking off Class 3A North Central, 2-1. The Eagles scored both of their goals in the first half.

West Valley graduated a pair of All-GNL midfielders in Chris Lucas and Kual Nyiang as well as second-team All-GNL goalkeeper Zack Babinski.

Junior Chase Howat was a first-team All-GNL and second-team midfielder Tanner Jones.

Howat scored the game-winning goal against North Central.