Cheney girls blanked in pair of soccer losses

The Cheney High School girls soccer team couldn't find the net in a pair of Great Northern League games last week, losing at East Valley and at home to Clarkston by identical 3-0 scores.

Against the Knights last Tuesday, the Lady Blackhawks allowed only one goal in the first half, and surrendered two other scores late in the second. One was an own goal in the 76th minute and the other was the second by East Valley's Micaela Verdal, coming in the 79th minute.

Two days later against the Bantams the scoring was the opposite. Clarkston's Brook Morrow scored in the 14th minute, getting behind the Cheney defense and knocking a shot past a charging Paige Lewis for the score.

Ryen Nicholas's unassisted goal made it 2-0 in the 31st minute, and Morrow added her second score in the 54th minute.

Cheney was out shot 19-3 over both games, with Lewis making 11 saves and Reba Eaton two saves, both against Clarkston.

"Played pretty well against East Valley and actually had two break away chances to tie the game before they scored their second with about 4 minutes left," head coach Nels Radtke said in an email. "Two of their three goals came off corner kicks which have always been a defensive weakness for us. Clarkston was a different story. We were not ready to play."

Cheney falls to 1-5, 3 points, in the GNL, 1-9 overall. The Lady Blackhawks hosted Pullman (0-5, 0-8) Tuesday and travel to West Valley (5-1, 15 points, 7-2) to face the league-leading Eagles Thursday.

Part of Cheney's challenges last week was the team was rather banged up, missing several key players for both games. Radtke said he hopes to have most back at least by the West Valley game.

"We have several girls that have nagging injuries that won't go away until they can rest," he added.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].