Cheney defeats Lakeland 3-0, loses to East Valley 1-0 on late goal

The Cheney High girls’ soccer team wrapped up the first half of its regular season with a 3-0 shutout over Idaho’s Lakeland (Sept. 20) and a 1-0 loss to Great Northern League rival East Valley.

The loss puts the Lady Blackhawks (3-1 GNL, 9 points, 7-1 overall) in second place in the league standings behind the Knights (4-0, 12 points, 5-2). However, Cheney is in a different — and better — position than at this time last year, when they had only one victory under their belt and were winless in GNL play.

“To be 7-1 at this point, I’ll take it,” head coach Nels Radtke said.

During the Lakeland game, Gabby Nguyen, assisted by Madison O’Callaghan, put her team on the board with a goal in the 11th minute.

“We wanted Maddy (O’Callaghan) to gain the ball and send it through to a teammate,” Radtke said. She did a great job and played a great ball to Gabby, who sent it past the keeper.”

In the second half, it would be O’Callaghan’s turn to score as she scored a goal at the 46th minute. Riley Klauss made the assist. Kailey Estrellado capped Cheney’s scoring at the 76th minute with a left-foot shot into the net.

Cheney outshot Lakeland 10-5 with Nicole Rowley making three saves and Melissa Aris notching two.

As for the East Valley match, Radtke predicted that the contest between his team and the Knights was going to be “a battle.” With the score tied 0-0 and two minutes left to play, East Valley’s Shannon Frucci scored a goal to prevent the game from going into overtime.

“They got us this time,” Radtke said. “The effort was there, but we didn’t do a good enough job of countering passes.” Cheney managed to hit the crossbar a couple of times, but could not score.

East Valley outshot Cheney 8-7 with Rowley making seven saves.

“We’re going to keep trying and keep everybody positive,” Radtke said. “I feel bad for Pullman because we’re going to take it to them.”

The Lady Blackhawks played fifth-place Pullman (0-5, 1-6) at home, Sept. 27. They are on the road tonight (Sept. 29) against third-place Clarkston (3-2, 9 points, 3-2). Before they face Cheney, the Bantams are coming off back-to-back wins over Pullman and Moscow and played West Valley, Sept. 27.

Al Stover can be reached at [email protected].