Big Sky Tonight 9.30.16: Idaho, Idaho State win as Griz, Eags earn ties

The Idaho Vandals gained a bit of ground back up on Eastern Washington Friday in the Big Sky Conference thanks to a 2-0 home win in a rematch of last year's conference tournament final against Northern Colorado. Meanwhile, league leading Eastern Washington and Montana played to draws on the road. The Bengals of Idaho State also ended a 13-game Big Sky losing streak.

HS DAILY - 9.30.16: Shootouts, Big 9 upsets highlight the night

Two of the three contests in the Northeast A League went to shootouts Thursday with Medical Lake escaping an upset at Freeman and Lakeside doing the same at Riverside. Meanwhile, minus injured standout striker Riley Martinson, Deer Park continues to dominate things, posting a 4-1 victory on the road in Colville.

The two matches, meanwhile, in the Great Northern League were both shutouts as Cheney became the first side to blank Clarkston and East Valley once again dominated Pullman.

Out in the Mid-Columbia Conference and Columbia Basin Big Nine, the there were a few of eye-openers. In the MCC, Kamiakin survived a scare on the road versus Pasco, winning in a shootout, to keep close to unbeaten Southridge while in the CBBN Wenatchee and Davis were not as fortunate. Wenatchee fell to one-win Eastmont in a shootout on the road while Davis were narrowly topped at home by one-win Sunnyside, giving unbeaten West Valley a two-game advantage in the table over the rest of the field, that features three teams - Wenatchee, Moses Lake and Davis - tied with three wins.

Here's a look around the action from Thursday night...

College Polls and Awards 9.29.16

Here is a quick look at the rankings for the teams in the northwest-based leagues around the nation and awards handed out in those leagues to INWsn area players.

LD COLLEGE ROUND-UP: Whitworth & Whitman men battled western foes to extra time

The story of the weekend may be what transpired in western Washington in the Northwest Conference over the weekend as the Whitworth and Whitman men both traveled to the other side of the Cascades to face Pacific Lutheran and Puget Sound. Three of the four contests went to overtime and Whitman came away, arguably, as the biggest winners with a victory over the Lutes and a draw against Puget Sound that has put the duo and league favorite Whitworth mid-table after four games.

Whitworth's counterparts also had a great week as the Lady Pirates downed regional rival Whitman 2-1 and blanked Willamette for a pair of wins.

In the Cascade Conference, Eastern Oregon women posted a pair of shutouts on the road in Montana for a draw and a victory, opening their Cascade Conference campaign with four consecutive shutouts. Carroll, which the Mountaineers played to a scoreless draw with, have started similarly with a matching 3-0-1 record, but have allowed one goal.

On the men's side in the CCC, Great Falls swept the weekend while Eastern Oregon and Carroll split. The Argos and Saints both topped visiting Warner Pacific with UGF also getting a victory against the Mountaineers, who won at Carroll.

MSU-Billings two sides also had a great week in the GNAC. The women posted a victory and a scoreless draw on the week while the men picked up two wins and a draw, scoring a dozen goals in the process.

HS DAILY - 9.29.16: Ferris downs LC in shootout

One-sided contests continue to be the norm in the Greater Spokane League as the 4A sides continue facing the 3A schools in the early part of the season. The result after three match days is a trio of teams with perfect records and double-digit goal differentials. That trio - Mead, Central Valley and Gonzaga Prep - won their three matches Wednesday by a combined 21-1, though the Bullpups were in the closest contest in a 3-1 victory over University.

In the only close contest of the day, Ferris finally registered its first victory by downing Lewis & Clark in a shootout after a 2-2 draw.

Here's a look around the action from Wednesday night...

NWAC East Tonight 9.28.16: Home sides dominate the day

The top three women's sides - Spokane, Walla Walla and North Idaho - were at home Wednesday and took care of business with each posting two-goal victories on the day. On the men's side, Spokane and Walla Walla were victorious at home while North Idaho used a home victory to slide into the top three.

HS DAILY - 9.28.16: Southridge slips by Kamiakin to remain unbeaten

One postponed game from a week ago aside, the Mid-Columbia Conference hit the mid-season point Tuesday evening, and the night was highlighted by a first-place showdown between unbeaten Southridge and 5-1 Kamiakin. The two sides battled to a draw through regulation and overtime, but the shootout went decisively to the Suns, allowing them to finish 7-0 through the first half of the campaign.

In the Spokane area leagues, the night was highlighted by a back-and-forth contest between Northeast A League contenders Medical Lake and Lakeside that saw the visiting Cardinals snare a 3-2 victory in the final minute of overtime.

Here's a look around the action from Tuesday night...

HS DAILY - 9.27.16: Moses Lake hands Davis first loss; Power Rankings

In the lone league contest of the weekend, Moses Lake on Saturday blanked visiting Davis 3-0 to hand the Pirates their first blemish of the Columbia Basin Big Nine league campaign in four outings. Abby Rathbun scored twice for the Chiefs with Denali Knowles providing the third and goalkeeper Abbigail Rosenow recording the shutout.

DI ROUND-UP: Boise State kicks off MWC with sweep

The preseason non-conference slate for the Boise State Broncos has been one of disappointment and frustration. It started off with a victory against a struggling Idaho State side and has not seen a W since, taking an eight-game winless streak into their league openers last weekend for the Midwest Conference.

The good news, though, was that the team was extremely competitive in every match, never losing by more than one goal no matter the opponent. The dropped a pair of 1-0 decisions against Seattle U and UC-Irvine before a pair of 2-1 losses in Oregon to the Ducks and Beavers of the PAC-12. That was followed by a pair of 1-0 defeats against two of the top four projected teams in the Big Sky at Montana and against Idaho. A trip to eastern Washington in their final non-conference week saw a dramatic 3-3 draw at Gonzaga in which they rallied from two down and a tough 2-1 loss to perennial NCAA tourney entrant Washington State.

On Friday, that streak came to an end. Picked to finish fifth in the preseason poll, the Broncos were playing host to Wyoming, who was chosen fourth, and took care of business with a 1-0 victory. They followed that up on Sunday with a 2-1 overtime victory against Colorado State.

Big Sky Tonight 9.25.16: Eastern Washington sweeps, alone in first

The Eagles of Eastern Washington University completed a weekend sweep of the Idaho schools with a dramatic 2-1 overtime victory Sunday against fellow Big Sky favorite University of Idaho. The victory, combined with other results on the weekend, left Eastern as the only team with two victories from the opening weekend of play in the Big Sky Conference.

NWAC East Tonight 9.24.16: Leaders Spokane, North Idaho avoid upsets

The Spokane and North Idaho women remain perfect despite tests from Treasure Valley and Yakima Valley Saturday while on the men's side both the Bigfoot and Cardinals also avoided upsets against the Chukars and Walla Walla Warriors, respectively.

The Spokane men continue to play great defense. After giving up three goals in their second game of the season and only loss, the Bigfoot have not allowed a goal, extending the streak to three-and-a-half games with a narrow victory at Treasure Valley. Meanwhile, the lady Sasquatch trailed for the first time in divisional play against the Chukars but came away with the win to remain perfect.

The North Idaho men rallied to their win at home while the women were held in a stalemate in Yakima before pulling away for their win to remain unbeaten.

HS DAILY - 9.24.16: G-Prep, Mead & CV grab second wins

The road teams ruled the night, sweeping the second day of play in the Greater Spokane League. Victories from Mead, Gonzaga Prep and Central Valley have the trio atop the table at 2-0 after the first week of play.

Big Sky Tonight: Eags & Vandals dominate openers

It was a good kick off for Eastern Washington and the defending regular season champion University of Idaho on Friday afternoon as both rolled to three-goal victories. In fact, the top three teams from last year all started with wins as Northern Colorado also was victorious at Weber State.

Big Sky Preview: Idaho, EWU and Montana favorites

The Big Sky Conference kicks off league play this weekend with all four of the programs within the Inland NW Soccer News coverage area matched up with one another as the Gem State pair of Idaho State and Idaho travel to face Eastern Washington and Montana, respectively, on Friday before switching locales for Sunday's fixtures.

Three of the four are slated to compete for the conference championship and return to the postseason tournament.

In the preseason coaches poll, the Idaho Vandals - last season's regular season champions - were chosen to repeat as the top side with Eastern Washington picked second and Montana fourth. Idaho State, meanwhile, was chosen to finish last.

Here's a quick look at each of the four schools and the rest of the field...

HS DAILY - 9.23.16: East Valley edges Cheney in first-place showdown

In the biggest contest of the night, two unbeatens squared off in Cheney with first place on the line in the Great Northern League and the visiting Knights of East Valley came away with the spoils in a tight 1-0 decision.

Elsewhere in the region Deer Park rolled to an easy win at home to pull even with Medical Lake in the Northeast A League while Southridge and West Valley cruised to wins to remain perfect in the Mid-Columbia Conference and Columbia Basin Big Nine, respectively. West Valley grabbed sole possession of first with the result.

HS DAILY - 9.22.16: CV takes Muddy Cleat; Ferris upended by Mt Spokane

On opening night of league play in the Greater Spokane League Wednesday, the Central Valley Bears downed rival University in the battle of the Muddy Cleat in one of the two close contests on the night. In the other, 3A Mt Spokane took 4A side Ferris all the way to penalties in a scoreless affair, coming away with the shootout win.

On Tuesday in the Mid-Columbia Conference and Columbia Basin Big Nine There were a pair of shootout victories amidst a slew of blowouts with Pasco nipping Chiawana after a scoreless contest in the MCC and Davis getting the better of Wenatchee in the CBBN after a 2-2 draw.

NWAC East Tonight 9.21.16: Knights, Bigfoot benefit in close men's contests

It was quite a different slate for the ladies and the men on the night as there were 26 goals in three women's contests and only six in the three for the gentlemen.

Walla Walla and Spokane drubbed Columbia Basin and Blue Mountain, respectively, while Treasure Valley pulled away in a back-and-forth affair at Wenatchee Valley for a two-goal victory. Spokane remains perfect through four games while Walla Walla remains on their heels.

On the men's side Wenatchee Valley and Spokane netted 2-0 victories over Treasure Valley and North Idaho while Walla Walla and Columbia Basin battled to a 1-1 draw. The results gave Spokane a one-game lead in the table and put Wenatchee Valley in third.

College Polls and Awards 9.21.16

Here is a quick look at the rankings for the teams in the northwest-based leagues around the nation and awards handed out in those leagues to INWsn area players.

HS DAILY - 9.21.16: Medical Lake edges Deer Park in NEA stunner

East Valley continues to roll in the Great Northern League, but the bigger story on the evening was Medical Lake handing Deer Park its first shutout loss in two years in a showdown of two of the Northeast A League's top sides.

LD COLLEGE ROUND-UP: Whitworth men open NWC with dramatic late wins

Whitworth opened with a pair of close last-minute victories, but the story of the week in the NWC may have been Pacific, picked fourth in the preseason poll, registering overtime wins over both Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran, who were picked to finish third and second, respectively.

Whitworth rallied to defeat Willamette 2-1 Saturday with a pair of goals in the final 16 minutes. Rylan Berriman played a key role in the 'magic minute' by scoring the winner in the 87th minute Saturday and setting up the winner the following day in a 1-0 result against Linfield in the very same minute.

In the Cascade Conference, the Rocky Mountain men won their opener while Carroll split on the week. On the women's side, the area schools got off to a great start with Eastern Oregon and Carroll winning twice and Rocky Mountain winning their opener.

Most of the GNAC spent the week with more non-conference tune-ups, but a handful of the women's teams kicked off their league campaigns, including Northwest Nazarene, which lost.

HS DAILY - 9.20.16: GSL teams near season openers

The Mead Panthers rolled to a non-league win Monday against visiting Sandpoint of class 4A (second tier in ID) while Lewis & Clark came up a bit short against 5A Lake City across the border.

They were the final non-league games for Greater Spokane League schools before the league opens official play on Wednesday. The other four major leagues continue their seasons with games Tuesday.

DI ROUND-UP: Eagles still soaring as Big Sky season nears

The trio of eastern Washington-based schools all had pretty good weeks, posting a combined record of 3-1-1. Washington State posted a pair of victories at home while Eastern Washington played to a draw and a win in the midwest. The Gonzaga women netted a draw in a wild contest at home against Boise State before suffering a narrow loss at Seattle Sunday.

Among the highlights for the trio was Chloe Williams (Spokane, WA) becoming Eastern Washington's all-time leader in points with a goal Friday. The junior's 57 points surpassed recent grad Cassie Black, who posted 55 before graduating in 2014. She entered this season as the program's all-time assists leader – she currently has 13 career assists – and she is currently second on the program's all-time goals list with 22, just two behind Black's current mark of 24.

The fantastic start for the 20th ranked Gonzaga men, meanwhile, came to a screeching halt just days after their first appearance in the Top 25 since 2007, dropping a pair of matches away from home against 19th ranked Utah Valley and UC-Riverside.

HS DAILY - 9.18.16: Southridge moves top of MCC

In their fourth game of the season, the Southridge Rams moved to the top of the table by remaining unbeaten thanks to a 2-0 victory at home against Hanford Saturday. Kaylee Sambrano put the hosts in front 17 minutes in and Kendall Pope added some insurance in the 26th. Tiara Valadez needed to make just one save to earn the shutout.

NWAC East Tonight 9.17.16: Big wins put Spokane atop both tables

All the women's sides on the road Wednesday came away with shutout victories, two of them tight 1-0 decisions, while the Walla Walla CC men were the only road team to win Wednesday, grabbing the early division lead in the table.

The Warriors' success on the road, though, disappeared Saturday as Spokane dominated in the doubleheader with a combined 9-0 scoreline. Elsewhere, it was a day of comebacks as the WVC men, TVCC men and WVC women rallied for positive results.

The results have the Spokane and Walla Walla men even at the top of the NWAC East at 2-1-0 while the Bigfoot Ladies are 3-0-0 at the top of the women's table along with nearby North Idaho College, which has benefitted from drubbings of newcomer Blue Mountain in a schedule that put them together for two of their first three games.

HS DAILY - 9.17.16: MCC & CBBN kick off 2016 campaigns

Davis and West Valley swept their two opening games this week as the Columbia Basin Big Nine began play, but the Mid-Columbia Conference is a full two weeks into their campaign with three teams posting three wins in the first four game days. Southridge is nearly perfect through three outings with one shootout win in its 3-0 record while Chiawana and Kamiakin are each 3-1.

HS DAILY - 9.16.16: GNL & NEA kick off 2016 campaigns

In the first week of league play for the Great Northern League and Northeast A League three teams went unbeaten in their two contests. Cheney and East Valley sit atop the GNL and Medical Lake leads the NEA.

LD COLLEGE ROUND-UP: Cascade Conference shows well versus NWC

With conference play kicking off for the DIII Northwest Conference and the NAIA Cascade Collegiate Conference this coming weekend, many of their schools squared off in the past week in their final non-conference contests. The CCC schools posted some impressive results with the men's sides going 7-1 versus the NWC and the ladies finishing 6-2.

While Division I and II schools still have several weeks before most schools begin conference play, the two conferences will kick off their conference play this weekend.

NWAC East Round-Up: Spokane sweeps to open defense of titles

They were two completely different games, but the CC Spokane Bigfoot opened defense of their 2015 East Division titles with a pair of victories Saturday night on the opening day of NWAC league play. The ladies dominated with a 7-2 victory over Wenatchee Valley College in which Erica Simpson (Post Falls, ID) and Stephanie Overland (Moses Lake, WA) recorded hat-tricks. In the second half of the doubleheader the Sasquatch men squeaked by the Knights with a lone penalty kick on a handball deciding the contest.

DI ROUND-UP: Gonzaga men, EWU women continue impressive starts

A week after knocking off 16th ranked Seattle University at home, the Bulldogs registered another impressive win over a ranked side - this time on the road with a 3-1 victory at 20th ranked American University. They followed it up with another road win to move to 5-0-1, marking the first time the Bulldogs are unbeaten in the first six games since they were 8-0-0 in 1980.

The Eastern Washington women also won a pair of road contests in impressive fashion with three goals from Chloe Williams (Spokane, WA), who moved within a point of recent 2014 grad Cassie Black for the program's all-time points leader.

NWAC East: Divisional play kicks off Saturday

Heading into the first weekend of divisional play for the NWAC East, the top sides head into their campaigns with solid performances against opposition that reached the postseason a year ago and more.

LD COLLEGE ROUND-UP: Non-league action provides early tests

Here's a quick glance around the region for the lower division DII, DIII and NAIA programs that have been in action. The Whitworth men showed their power with a pair of big wins to kick off their season while quite a few other programs had impressive results on the road and against ranked opposition as they prepare for their GNAC, NWC and Cascade Conference campaigns.

DI ROUND-UP: Zags continue to excel and Cougs rebound

The Gonzaga Bulldogs are showing they have quite a bit of bite to their bark this season thus far. The ladies followed up their upset win over Washington State with another victory this week (after a cancelled game against Eastern Washington in which they trailed), but it was the men grabbing the headlines with its results. On Thursday they edged visiting Oral Roberts and then followed it up with an upset victory over 16th-ranked Seattle University, giving them their first four-game unbeaten start (3-0-1) since they were 4-0-0 in 1997. Meanwhile, Washington State rebounded from their defeat in Spokane with wins over Montana and North Dakota State.

LD College Round-Up: Getting ready for the season

Here's a quick glance around the region for the DII, DIII and NAIA programs that have been in action (games through Sunday, August 28). Some contests may be exhibitions that were not identified by the school/conference.

DI College Round-Up: Local schools start well

Preseason college soccer means non-conference opponents from around the nation and trips outside of the northwest. Area teams are handling those challenges well this year. Montana and Eastern Washington have both won three games with the Grizzlies starting 3-0-1 and the Eagles winning three before suffering their first defeat. Gonzaga is also off to a positive start at 2-1-1 with an impressive upset win against a Washington State side that had edged 13th-ranked Santa Clara and went to overtime in a 2-1 loss to 16th-ranked BYU.