Shadow wake up, close out Yakima

Dustin Allberry is starting to make a habit of this.

In a game largely defined by the Shadow just going through the motions in the first half-hour, Allberry got his third goal in as many games as Spokane upended the Yakima Reds 3-1 in the regular season finale Saturday in front of 1,110 fans at Joe Albi Stadium. The win, at least temporarily, put the Shadow (11-4-1, 34 points) into first place in the Premier Development League’s Northwest Division.

The Shadow are now three points ahead of the Cascade Surge, who host the Abbotsford Rangers tonight. If the teams end tied for first, the Surge own the tiebreaker, winning the season series against the Shadow 3-2.

Either way, Spokane is heading to Fresno this weekend for the Western Conference playoffs against the either the Fresno Fuego or the Orange County Blue Star of the PDL’s Southwest Division.

Their first match will be Friday at either 5 or 7:30 p.m., depending on their seeding. With a win Friday, Spokane would play Saturday at 7:30.

The Shadow’s regular season ended on a high note, but the night started off slowly. Allberry’s goal helped Spokane salvage something out of what had been, from Spokane’s perspective, a subpar first half.

After Victor Calderon split Ben Sawyer and Skye Henderson to head home a Ryan Delo cross in the 27th minute, team captain and assistant coach Kieran Barton, making a rare run forward, was sent in on the right side by midfielder Skye Henderson. Barton’s cross went across the face of the goal and fell to Allberry, who gladly banged home his fifth goal of the season.

“We combined about five, six passes, Kieran got in behind and I just flipped it in,” Allberry said.

In the second half, the Shadow struck early and wore the Reds down.

In the 46th minute, forward Jake Moug deflected a Yakima clearing attempt to Hite. Hite took an angled run into the middle of the 18-yard box and sent the ball under Reds goalie Robert McCurdy for his 14th goal of the season before running to the sideline and doing a back flip off the wall.

With the Reds seemingly out of energy, Henderson rounded out the scoring in the 80th minute with a beautiful diving header off a Troy Ready cross.

Jake Moug and Ready linked up with a give-and-go. Ready then had a second give-and-go with Henderson, then, from the right of the Yakima penalty box, Ready crossed to the penalty spot for Henderson, who laid out for his second goal of the season.

It was an ideal response by the Shadow after the slow start.

“I think we started out looking past them at first,” Hite said. “We were maybe looking to Fresno before we really got into the game and then they woke us up with that earlier goal. And then at halftime we realized we still had a game to play before the playoffs.”

The difference may well have been a matter of possession.

“We weren’t very good at taking care of the ball well in the first half, especially when we got closer to their goal,” Shadow head coach Stuart Saunders said. “Ryan Delo caused us some problems when he got one-vs.-one because he has terrific pace and he ultimately punished us on it with the first goal.

“But we got the goal back and came out in the second half and were just a little bit better with the ball, not giving it away as much.”

Allberry’s sudden resurgence may help take the pressure off Hite, who was double-teamed for much of the game, heading into the Western Conference playoffs.

“Heading in with more options is obviously better,” Allberry said. “We’ll have more threats and be harder to defend.”