Cardinals split in Northeast A League soccer

One spectacular finish did not lead to another last week for the Medical Lake girl’s soccer team, which earned a split in a pair of Northeast A League contests.

Getting a late goal from Nicole Wetherell on Oct. 10, the Cardinals earned a 2-1 win on the road over Colville. But the team saw a 2-2 tie lost in the game’s final 20 minutes Oct. 12 as Deer Park collected a 6-2 victory contest at home.

The split tossed Medical Lake (6-4 NEA, 7-6 overall) into fourth place in the league but still in the playoffs. “We should make the playoffs no matter what happens in the final two games,” head coach Zane Higgins said.

“We did a nice job pulling out the win against Colville,” Higgins said of a contest where the hero, Wetherell, came off the field after an injury with about 18 minutes left to tend to an injury. She shook it off and went back in the game after taping up her own knee.

“When she got back in for the final few minutes she was playing like she was on a mission,” Higgins said. “Nicole had her best 15 minutes of the year at the end of the game.”

Colville (3-7, 3-8) had a hard time dealing with Wetherell and she put a shot to the upper far post from 20 yards out in the 72nd minute to win it. Makayla Geiger gave Medical Lake a 1-0 lead at the 15-minute mark.

The Cardinals played with energy similar to what was seen versus Colville in their outing against the Stags.

“For 75 percent of the game, however, we played stronger than in our prior meeting,” Higgins said. “We just couldn’t maintain focus after they gained the momentum.”

Goals by Geiger off a penalty kick at the 15-minute mark, and Jaxyn Farmen’s goal at 34 minutes sent Medical Lake into the break tied 2-2. It stayed that way until the Stags (6-3, 7-4) scored twice within 3 minutes to turn the game their way.

“We had a couple defensive mistakes that we could not recover from in the second half and ended the game giving up some goals that we probably could have prevented,” Higgins said.

Medical Lake closes out the regular season this week, first with a contest on Senior Night, Oct. 18 and then at Lakeside (9-1, 13-1) today, Oct. 19 at 4 p.m.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].