It was a wild day in the Greater Spokane League with four of the five games seeing both teams in the lead at points, including thrilling last-minute results for the top three sides, who went into the day even at 6-1 in the table.
Tuesday's battle for first place at Mead was a dramatic back-and-forth affair, and when the final whistle sounded the Panthers celebrated a victory that placed them at the top of the Greater Spokane League with victories over the Bullpups and the Central Valley Bears, who escaped an upset scare by defeating Mt Spokane, 3-2 in overtime, in a dramatic late comeback.
Mead's win came off the hat-trick performance of Cheris Brown, who came into the match with just two goals in the GSL campaign. Brown's three-goal outing was arguably the best offensive performance in the league this season as the three previous hat-tricks were against the league's bottom two sides. Central Valley's Kallie Crouch and Shadle's Keilah Shaw posted three goals in wins against winless Rogers and Brown's teammate Claire Neder struck for three in a blowout against Shadle Park.
Here's a look around the action from Wednesday...
GSL #####
Gonzaga Prep 2-3 Mead: It was a meeting of two of the three teams tied for first with one loss on the season and the contest did not disappoint. Mead had the better of the play early on and nearly took the lead in the 17th minute when Katie Greene sent an effort from the top of the box off the crossbar. Two minutes later it was Prep that was on the scoreboard first with Chelsea Le feeding Eva Kennar for the opener.
The two sides scrapped the rest of the half, but the game turned quickly in the second half with back-to-back goals from Cheris Brown. She took a ball from Claire Neder in the 43rd minute into the right corner and from what was an impossible angle, lofted a ball over the head of goalkeeper Zoe Boleneus and into the far side of the goal. Four minutes later she scored again, breaking into the box with space from the right on a ball from Greene.
The Bullpups fought to equalize and in the 68th minute a corner from the left side was nodded in by a Mead defender marking Angel Denke at the near side of the six, evening the match up with 12 minutes remaining. As it began to look as though extra time - or even a shootout, which would have benefitted Central Valley greatly - would be needed to decide a winner, Brown got on the board a third time, finishing a ball from Olivia Sloan with three minutes left.
Mt Spokane 2-3 OT Central Valley: Two minutes. The Wildcats were two minutes away from registering what would have been the upset of the season in the GSL. Those hopes were muted by Mallory Daines in the 78th minute and then thrown away by Maggie Ames two minutes into overtime when she finished a ball from Anna Hilbert. Hilbert helped give the Bears the opening goal 23 minutes in when she connected with Kailyn LaBrosse, but the Wildcats clawed themselves into the lead with Amber Hickman scoring with just a little over a minute left in the first half and Payton Stiles tallying five minutes into the second period.
Ferris 1-2 University: In a battle for the final spot in the 4A postseason, the Titans rallied at home to pull even in the table with Ferris going into the final day of GSL play. The Saxons had the initial lead from a 12th minute goal from Madi VonBrethorst and held onto it until the second half. Three minutes after the break Kylan Krause found Piper Lawson for the equalizer. It looked like the two sides would head to overtime, but Julia Adair netted her league-leading ninth goal of the season with just two minutes left on the clock for the win.
Shadle Park 2-4 Lewis & Clark: In yet another back-and-forth affair for the Tigers they found themselves trailing twice to one-win Shadle Park in the contest. Keilah Shaw put the Highlanders in front 13 minutes in on a ball from Kayla Clark. Six minutes later Sophie Doneen beat defense on the right and found Carolyn Moravec on the far side of the goal with a cross to even things up. Shadle, though, reclaimed the lead in the 21st on a penalty converted by Shaw following a handball.
The second half was all Lewis & Clark. Rebekah Reason scored seven minutes in on a breakaway to tie things up and then Haley Elkin scored back-to-back goals to give the Tigers the win. She tucked the first just under the crossbar on a free kick from about 30 yards in the 62nd minute and added some insurance six minutes later.
North Central 9-0 Rogers: The Indians used an easy win against Rogers to move in front of Mt Spokane in the table for the top 3A postseason seed. Quincy McDeid scored the opener and went on to set up one of Payton Flannery's two goals that made it 3-0 after 30 minutes and struck again in the 38th for a five-goal lead at the break. Izzy Garcia, Jaeden Sandstrom, Kylee Devore, Delaney Thompson and Meadow Williams also got on the board with Madison Dershem setting up the last three. Sarah Manor recorded the shutout.
STANDINGS & STATS #####
COMING UP #####
Greater Spokane League Remaining Schedule
Friday - Lewis & Clark @ Mt Spokane 4:00
Friday - Ferris @ Mead 4:00
Friday - Central Valley @ North Central 4:00
Friday - Rogers @ Gonzaga Prep 4:00
Friday - University @ Shadle Park 4:00
Mid-Columbia Conference Remaining Schedule
Thursday - Kennewick @ Chiawana 7:00
Thursday - Pasco @ Walla Walla 7:00
Thursday - Hanford @ Richland 7:00
Saturday - Southridge @ Kamiakin 12:00
Columbia Basin Big Nine **This Week Only**
Thursday - Eisenhower @ West Valley 7:00
Thursday - Moses Lake @ Wenatchee 7:00
Thursday - Sunnyside @ Eastmont 7:00
Great Northern League Remaining Schedule
Thursday - Clarkston @ Pullman 4:00
Thursday - West Valley @ East Valley 6:00
Saturday - East Valley @ Cheney 12:00
Saturday - Pullman @ West Valley 12:00
Northeast A League Remaining Schedule
Thursday - Newport @ Deer Park 4:00
Thursday - Lakeside @ Medical Lake 6:00
Thursday - Riverside @ Freeman (CV Stadium) 6:00
Missing Data... If you have scoring / goalkeeping information for the following games, please email to gbarnsoccer-at-gmail or message INWsoccernews on Facebook: 9.13 Davis @ Eisenhower... 9.15 Eisenhower @ Wenatchee... 9.20 Eisenhower @ Sunnyside... 9.22 Sunnyside @ Wenatchee... 9.27 West Valley @ Eisenhower (Ike goal)... 9.27 Eastmont @ Sunnyside (GK info)... 9.29 Sunnyside @ Davis... 9.29 Eisenhower @ Moses Lake (Ike info)... 10.4 Eastmont @ Eisenhower (GK info)... 10.11 Wenatchee @ Eisenhower... 10.13 Sunnyside @ Eisenhower... 10.18 Moses Lake @ Davis (Davis goal)... 10.18 Wenatchee @ Sunnyside...
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