Shadow earn share of 1st
Spokane Shadow goalkeeper Shaun Kalnasy was named to the Premier Development League’s All-Western Conference team last season.
This year, he started on the bench with a hurt rib and then played with it still injured.
It’s amazing what health can do for you.
Boosted by a healthy and in-form Kalnasy and the return of midfielder Troy Ready from a professional tryout in Norway, the Shadow earned a tie for first place in the Northwest Division with a solid 2-0 win Friday over the Cascade Surge at Joe Albi Stadium.
The Surge had given the Shadow problems all season, particularly on the defensive end, but the Spokane backline was able to shut down the talented duo of Andriy Budnyy and Adrian Balc (who only played the second half).
And to a man, the difference was the organization.
(The back line) was just phenomenal, we were phenomenally well organized,” said Kalnasy, who finished with six saves. “I can’t ask for a better line of defense than the group of guys I had lining up in front of me. When we’re organized like we were tonight, it’s just awesome. It’s a pleasure to play in front of.”
Where Budnyy and Balc had exploited one-on-one matchups in the past, the Shadow defense, anchored in the middle by team captain and assistant coach Kieran Barton and Gonzaga defender Rob Anderson, backed off a bit and was able to prevent the Surge forwards from getting behind them.
“We just sat off them a little more,” Anderson said. “They’d given us trouble before when they’d have one guy sitting in front of the defense and one us would go and leave the other guy alone, so we just played more together and let that guy go open in the midfield and we always had help behind us.”
The Shadow took the lead 12 minutes in, with Brett Hite taking advantage of some hard work by Ready and Garth Cummings. Hite sent the ball into Ready in the center of the midfield. Ready, who just agreed to terms with Norwegian first-division frontrunners IK Start and is waiting for a work permit to make the deal official, sent a ball over the top to Cummings.
At first, the ball looked to have been played too far, but Cummings pressured and harassed Surge defender Shelly Kellar and won the ball and played it back to Hite standing in the left corner of the Cascade penalty box. From there, the unmarked striker used the outside of his left foot to curl the ball around Surge goalie Aaron Tredway and into the bottom right corner of the net for his 13th goal of the season.
“I felt guilty for taking it,” Hite said. “Garth did all the work, just battling and I was just sitting there and it bounced back and I just kicked it.”
The Shadow doubled theie advantage four minutes from time, with a pair of substitutes combining for the goal.
Midfielder John Palladino, who came on for Skye Henderson in the 62nd minute, combined with Barton to stuff and then strip Balc. Palladino then sent a ball in behind Kellar to left midfielder Dustin Allberry, who came on for Ready in the 62nd minute.
Tredway took a gamble and came off his line to cut down the angle, but Allberry coolly and calmly chipped the ball over the top of the keeper for the icing on the Shadow’s cake.
The win gives the Shadow (10-4-1) 31 points, though if they end the season tied with the Surge (10-4-1) on points, Cascade would win the tiebreaker based on head-to-head matchups (the Surge won the season series 3-2).
The Surge, who play the Abbotsford Rangers (who beat Cascade 2-0 in the teams’ last meeting) Sunday, would need to either tie or lose for Spokane to have a chance at first place.
The Shadow, meanwhile, take on the rival Yakima Reds tonight at 7 p.m. at Joe Albi Stadium, knowing they need a win to keep the pressure on Cascade.
It also makes what is consistently a fierce matchup with the Reds that much more intense.
“You know, it’s a weird game just because it is that big rivalry,” Shadow head coach Stuart Saunders said. “Last year we had some problems in our last game against them, with red cards and silly stuff that happened, so we just want to play smart and keep our heads.”