Card soccer is one-and-done

By PAUL DELANEY

Staff Reporter

With their league-leading goal scorer all wrapped up in smothering defense, and a second sniper hard-pressed to pick up the slack, Medical Lake lost its first-round playoff game 1-0 to Colville in overtime on May 3 at Holliday Field.

Colville’s Pedro Zarate took a cross from Noah Rarrick and tapped it past Cardinals’ keeper Taye Jones 2 minutes, 30 seconds into overtime for the deciding goal.

Medical Lake, which had won three-straight to finish the regular season and earn the runner-up slot and No. 2 seed in the Northeast A League’s regular season, finished 9-7.

“(It was a) tough game, it came down to the wire, they pulled it out,” head coach Zane Higgins said. “We were in position to defend it, the player just made a nice little cut-move to the inside and hit a tremendous shot, a beautiful shot.”

There wasn’t much Medical Lake could do and Jones, who made five saves on the day, couldn’t have saved that one, Higgins said.

Medical Lake outshot Colville 15–10 and had plenty of pressure on the visitors. “We were unlucky to not get a goal before (the winner),” Higgins said.

The Cardinals were perfect against Colville in the regular season, not only scoring a pair of victories, but doing so in shutout fashion, 3-0 on April 10 and 2-0 April 26. The Cards’ career scoring leader, Nick Rosenbeck had a pair of goals in both wins, but this time Colville had answers.

Dropping back a fifth defender, the Indians completely stymied Rosenbeck. That was thought to somewhat play to the Cardinals advantage — leaving their other big scorer, Carter Pivonka, more open.

“And it did,” Higgins said. “We were getting the ball to Carter quite a bit; he had some good chances, just nothing we could finish off.”

In the second half, Medical Lake was pressing hard, Higgins said. And defensively, the Cardinals were clamping down. “They weren’t getting much in the second half, other than some counter-attacks,” he said.

While he was unable to rescue his team, Rosenbeck finished his senior season with a flurry, scoring 82 career goals, including a season-record 25 in 2018.

“It was fun this whole year because we had Makayla (Geiger) with the girls breaking all the records,” Higgins said. “It was fun to watch ’em play.”

Rosenbeck was the NEA’s offensive MVP, along with a first-team all-league award. Steven Robo repeated as a pick at defense, James Pivionka also garnered a defensive slot as did brother Carter at forward on the all-league.

Jones earned the top keeper award that Higgins thought somehow eluded him as a freshman.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].