Win advances Cheney to regional action Saturday against CWAC
Cheney forward Alex Torres prepares to go airborne to keep the ball away from a Clarkston player in the Blackhawks 4-0 playoff win over the visiting Bantams.
See a photo gallery from the event here.
It took a shootout for the Cheney boys soccer team to finally put away last Saturday's District 7 playoff game at Pullman.
But then why shouldn't it be that way - after all, the other three contests between the Blackhawks and Greyhounds were also decided by penalty kicks. After 80 minutes of regulation and 10 minutes of overtime resulted in a 1-1 tie, Cheney out shot Pullman 6-5 in penalty kicks for a 2-1 win, eliminating the Great Northern League's No. 2 seed and sending the Blackhawks into the district championship/seeding game Tuesday at East Valley.
For a brief period, Cheney head coach Morgan Hartanov thought his team might pull of the improbable - defeat Pullman in regulation. Noah Prophet connected off an assist from Gabe Hemenway for a goal giving Cheney a 1-0 lead with 11 minutes left in the game.
It looked like that goal would stand up, but Hartanov said the referee kept adding extra time after regulation. That allowed the Greyhounds' Jed Byers to head in the equalizer with seconds remaining to tie the score.
Cheney got penalty kicks from Blake Smith, Prophet, Noah Schorzman, Graham West, Hemenway and Trevor Babcock to seal the win. The Blackhawks were out shot by Pullman 12-10, with goalkeeper Dalton Mauzay making nine saves.
"The guys put their (penalty) shots away," Hartanov said. "They did a good job."
The win came on the heels of a 4-0 opening-round playoff win against Clarkston May 4. The Blackhawks played their ball-control game to perfection against the visiting Bantams, getting first-half goals from Prophet and Bas Holland and second-half goals from Hunter Plummer and Dylan Newbry. Holland had two assists and Alex Petropoulos had one.
"It's always good to get a handful of goals, it builds confidence," Hartanov said.
Cheney was to play GNL regular-season champion East Valley Tuesday, May 9, at 6 p.m. The winner earns the top-seed into the regional crossover games with the Central Washington Athletic Conference and would host the loser of the Othello/Toppenish match up on Saturday.
The loser of Cheney/East Valley travels to face the winner of Othello/Toppenish, also on Saturday.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
See a photo gallery from the event here.
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