First-place Spokane Velocity beat Forward Madison 2-1

The Spokane Velocity had not won since May 18.

They were 3-0-2 in their past five matches, with two draws this past week against AV Alta and a 1-1 tie with Charlotte on Wednesday.

But a 2-1 victory over Forward Madison at ONE Spokane Stadium on Saturday, put them four points ahead of second-ranked Charlotte and in a comfortable first-place position.

In the 21st minute, Shavon John-Brown opened the scoring for Spokane off a corner kick from Nil Vinyals.

Vinyals sent the ball toward a crowded goalie box, which was seized by John-Brown. John-Brown curled a right-footed shot to the back of the net, and the Velocity grabbed the 1-0 lead.

Three minutes into the second period, Forward Madison leveled the game with a goal from Lucca Dourado off a cross from Christopher Garcia inside the penalty box.

It didn’t take long for Spokane to answer, and in the 57th minute, Pierre Reedy re-seized the advantage.

Defender David Garcia, near the top of Spokane’s penalty box found a sprinting Pierre Reedy who was on the opposite end of the field, on a fast break. Reedy, alone, received the lob and beat multiple defenders.

Forward Madison’s goalkeeper, Bernd Schipmann ran out of his goal to deny Reedy, but Reedy outsmarted Schipmann and cut to the left, avoiding the goalie and rifled a shot into the back of the net.

“The main message to the team before the game was about rewarding themselves. We go to AV Alta, we probably should have won the game, and we didn’t. We walk away with a tie,” Spokane head coach Leigh Veidman said.

“They were… disappointed with that, and then Charlotte comes here and surprises us with the super low 5-4-1 one block and made it super difficult to break down… so we showed fantastic character to get back in the game… with a 1-1 result, but we felt unsatisfied,” he continued.

“Today was really about rewarding themselves and thankfully they got the jonb done.”

Camron Miller, who had his first league start since a one-game suspension forced him to sit against AV Alta, led Spokane’s defense with seven clearances.

While Spokane currently sits at the top of the mountain, Veidman made sure to note that it is early in the season with plenty of matches left.

“We still got half a season,” he said. “It’s very early, but it’s important to get the points at home while we’re at home… we got our eyes on Richmond next week.”