Ferris tops CV to forge four-way tie

A soccer loss the week before to Shadle Park’s boys left Ferris two games behind Central Valley in the Greater Spokane League.

Two matches later, the Saxons have created a four-team tie for first place with Wednesday’s 2-1 victory at home over the Bears.

The winning goal came with 2 minutes remaining in the first half. Thereafter, the Saxons battled a stiff wind and Central Valley’s late-match attack to make it stand up.

With the victory, Ferris, CV, Mt. Spokane and 3A East Valley are tied for the lead with 8-2 records.

“There’s still three games to play,” said Saxons coach Robin Crain. “So who knows what’s going to happen?”

Four other teams trail the quartet by six points. Mt. Spokane and EV still have surging Lewis and Clark on their schedule.

CV scored quickly against Ferris with Jay Vela sneaking past two defenders for an easy goal 5 minutes into the match after Ferris failed to clear the ball.

But the Saxons responded at the 10-minute mark with Avery Washington playing the equivalent of a basketball point guard.

Washington forced the action with his ball handling, got the ball to Tom Giardino, who found Cody Taff out front for the shot.

“Coach wanted me, if I could, to get the ball to a central forward and run off him,” Washington said. “He’d pass it wide and I could get a cross or something.”

With the wind at their backs, the Saxons dominated the remainder of the half, until Washington’s corner kick into a crowd of white Ferris jerseys was bumped home by team scoring leader Kyle Yonago.

“It’s kind of a play we do where Avery drills it through the middle and if Eric Burke, who always heads it in, doesn’t get it I’m supposed to be there,” Yonago said. “I just ran through the pile where I thought it would be and happened to hit it at the right time.”

Late momentum shifted to CV (9-3-1, 8-2) against Ferris (10-3, 8-2) in what turned into a physical match.

“The final 20 minutes they really put a lot of pressure on us, but we were able to hold,” said Crain. “We were going against the wind the whole second half and fatigue sets in. “

In other matches, EV (9-2, 8-2) edged visiting Cheney (9-4, 6-4), 1-0. The score came 17 minutes into the match when Cole Abramson‘s shot deflected off a Blackhawks defender and Dan Heinzen hit the rebound into the goal. Sophomore keeper Josh Peck recorded his seventh shutout. …Mt. Spokane (11-2, 8-2) got a hat trick from Keith Kirsch to blank visiting Shadle 3-0. …All the scoring came in the second half of LC’s 2-1 home victory over Gonzaga Prep (4-7, 3-7) at Hart Field. The Tigers (5-7, 5-5) broke a tie at the 57-minute mark. Richard Betts tackled a ball 25 yards out on the right side of the goal, touched it to Matt Harnetiaux, who scored with his left foot from 22 yards out into the upper-left corner. …Mead (6-5, 6-4) blanked host Rogers (4-9, 2-8) 3-0, all goals coming in the final 20 minutes. Ian Matson‘s corner kick deflected off the keeper and into the goal for the winner. …West Valley (5-7, 3-7) scored on a goal by Landon Page midway through the first half and held off visiting Clarkston (0-11, 0-10) 1-0 despite playing most of the second half a man down following a red card. …A shot by University’s Aaron Anderberg at the top of the 18-yard box deflected off a North Central defender for the only score in the Titans’ (6-5, 6-4) victory over the Indians (2-10, 1-9).