Blackhawks drop league games to East Valley, Pullman

See a photo gallery from the event here.

The Cheney boys' soccer team hit a bit of a snag last week in Great Northern League play. The Blackhawks dropped a pair of contests at home, falling 2-0 Tuesday to East Valley and getting clipped 2-1 by Pullman in a shootout on Thursday.

Head coach Morgan Hartanov felt his team dominated the game for the most part against the Knights, but simply couldn't generate enough scoring opportunities. After a scoreless first half, East Valley's Devonte Gorman broke the tie with a goal in the 43rd minute in what would prove to be the game winner.

Cheney continued to press offensively, Hartanov said, but in the 68th minute, goalkeeper Dalton Mauzay had difficulty judging a long 70-yard free kick that took some odd bounces and was knocked in for a score by Knights midfielder Joseph Gresch. Even down 2-0, Hartanov said his team retained its focus.

"We continued to press hard after that (second goal)," he added.

East Valley out shot Cheney 8-6 with Mauzay making six saves.

Thursday's game against visiting Pullman was not one of the Blackhawks' best of the season, Hartanov said. Cheney played to the Greyhounds' style and couldn't seem to gain the initiative.

No stats were available for the game, but the Greyhounds scored the first goal inside the first 20 minutes of the game. Not long after, Cheney's Colby Holland provided the equalizer, floating in a right to left shot from almost 30 yards that went over the outstretched arms of leaping goalkeeper Graham Laird and into the left side of the net.

Neither team scored in the second half or either of two, five-minute overtimes. In the shootout, Hartanov said two of Cheney's better shooters missed shots while Pullman hit all four of theirs for the win, although Mauzay appeared to block one of those shots, but was ruled by the a linesman to have come off the end-line, which gave the Pullman shooter a second attempt that he converted.

"It could've been a different scenario," Hartanov said of the linesman's call had it not been made.

Cheney drops to 3-2 in GNL play, 5-3 overall and into a virtual tie with Pullman. Both teams trail league-leader East Valley at 4-0, 6-1.

The Blackhawks have a couple games with which to get back on track. Cheney traveled to Clarkston (2-3, 2-4) on Tuesday, and then gets the rest of spring break off before resuming play Tuesday, April 11, at home against West Valley (0-6, 3-6).

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].

See a photo gallery from the event here.