The Lady Blackhawks soccer team struggled mightily with player absences last week, but still overcame a disappointing loss to East Valley to pull off two wins against Pullman and Deer Park in rapid succession.
The team was missing four starters, including senior keeper Melissa Aris, due to illnesses and family emergencies. Plus, two players have been stuck on the bench in recent games — one because of a concussion and another while recovering from a knee injury.
Head coach Nels Radtke pulled up three junior varsity players to bridge the gap, including keeper Sydney Regan, and said it was fortunate Cheney has a good JV team to pull from.
While battling these substitutions, Cheney came out flat in their Sept. 25 game against East Valley (6-4, 4-2,) recovering too late to tie the game, losing 4-3. The Lady Blackhawks were unable to score at all in the first half, staging a late comeback with two goals from sophomore midfielder Makenna Benson in the 55th and 60th minutes and one from junior forward Jocelyn Cone in the 75th.
It was an unfortunate outcome given the stellar performance by the team the last time they encountered East Valley, when they dominated 5-0 from their first moments on the pitch.
“We didn’t really start playing until the 25th minute. If we would have played the whole game like we played those 25 minutes, we’d have had them easily,” Radtke said. “We still need to work on being consistent, because that’s something that could really hurt us in the playoffs.”
The girls were able to shake it off and beat Pullman 3-0 on Sept. 27, making the most of their shooting and scoring one goal right off the bat thanks to recently promoted JV player Grace Hammermeister.
They delivered two more goals immediately after the start of the second half, one by senior midfielder and forward Gabby Nguyen and another by junior midfielder and forward Kaitlin Teeters.
The work Cheney has put in to bolster its shooting was evident, as they outshot Pullman 14-2. They carried that momentum to their Sept. 29 non-league game against Deer Park, eking out a 3-2 win in a physical fight to the finish.
Senior defender Carla Thorson scored the opening goal in the 10th minute, but their victory nearly eluded them following a hotly debated goal from Deer Park.
“It hit the cross bar and came down, and neither ref was in a good position to make that call, but we had to take that,” Radtke said.
Stepping it up in the second half, the Lady Blackhawks rode to victory thanks to a goal by Cone with an assist from junior defender and forward Mackenzie Huotari in the 52nd minute and a decisive goal from Nguyen and sophomore midfielder Emma Evans in the last minutes of the game.
Shannen Talbot can be reached at [email protected].
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