Grizzlies come from 3-1 first-half deficit, bump Cardinals from playoffs
Medical Lake was one of the best defensive teams in the Northeast A League.
Until the final 40 minutes of their 2016 season that is.
The Cardinals, who had won five consecutive games, all by shutout, were helpless it seemed last Tuesday, May 10, in the final half of their 4-3 playoff loss at Newport, who would upset regular season champ Colville 3-0 two days later to earn a berth to state.
The Grizzlies rallied from a 3-1 first-half deficit to earn the win in the loser-out round. Newport (12-5), swept the three contests they played against Medical Lake, who finished 9-8 on the season.
"Once Newport started getting the momentum it just piled up," Cardinals' head coach Zane Higgins said. That momentum came from them getting a pair of goals less than four minutes apart from Pablo Rufino in the 51st minute and in the 55th minute by Pedro Madeira to tie the match at 3-3.
Higgins said he tried to settle the team down after they tied it, but Kai Thomas tallied the winner in the 72nd minute. "They made a great play to finish it," he added.
"Things went real well to start the game," Higgins said, with Cody Bowman opening scoring at 19 minutes. Nick Rosenbeck made it 2-0 with the first of his two goals late in the 23rd minute. After Thomas scored for Newport to close it to 2-1 in the 32nd minute, Rosenbeck answered four minutes later and the Cardinals headed to the break with what seemed like a comfortable lead.
But the writing seemed to be on the wall. "We were breaking down big defensively, they (Newport) just didn't capitalize on it," Higgins said. Newport outshot Medical Lake 23-11 with Sam Matt getting peppered in goal.
"They had chances to score in the first half but they just missed," Higgins said. "We finished the chances we had, and I was kind of hoping we could lock it down in the second half."
While disappointed that they could not keep their late-season hot streak going, the season certainly had plenty of positives.
"It would have been nice to go on, I think we had a team that could have gone farther," Higgins said. "Our goal is to improve every time out and get better as the season goes along, we did that."
If there was a positive to be gained in seeing the season grind to a halt it was forward Rosenbeck's pair of scores that set a new school record for goals in a single season with 21.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
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