Youth Sports Notebook: Coeur d’Alene goalkeeper Lily Foster honored with Golden Glove award

Lily Foster of Coeur d’Alene, who helped lead Sting Timbers 00/01 into the championship match of the girls 18U division at the U.S. Youth Soccer National President’s Cup last weekend in Westfield, Indiana, received the Golden Glove as the best goalkeeper in the 2018 tournament.

This is the first year of awarding the Golden Glove, as selected by coaches in voting following each of three group matches. Foster, who will be a junior at Coeur d’Alene High School, had two shutouts and allowed just one goal in 3-0, 2-1 and 1-0 victories.

She was victimized for a second goal in the Hayden-based team’s fourth match, a championship showdown against Green White SC from Mt. Prospect, Illinois, which Timbers had defeated 1-0 in group play the day before. Green White scored in the 68th minute and held on for a 1-0 win.

After Dylan Van Fleet scored her third goal of the tournament for Green White, the Timbers pushed for the equalizer the last 20 minutes but couldn’t get a clean look at goal.

Forward Megan Drake, a 2018 CHS graduate who will play soccer at Eastern Washington this fall, scored in each of the first three games and shared the tournament scoring lead with three goals. Defenders Eryn Ducote and Bridget Rieken, who will be seniors at Lake City, joined Drake and Foster on the Best 11 all-tournament team.

Rieken and Chloe Teets, who also will be a senior at Lake City, also scored for the Timbers, who saw a nine-game win streak that ran through the Far West Regional (6-0) and President’s Cup group play (3-0) come to an end.

“We just rose to the occasion,” said coach Julio Morales of the late-season run that included a six-shooter shootout and extra-time wins in the regional semifinals and finals. The girls “put it all together at the right time.”

Morales noted that Rieken (Washington State), Teets (Idaho) and Foster (Idaho State) have made oral commitments to play college soccer.

Softball

Meghan Krantz of Cheney, a four-time Great Northern League first-team selection and the league MVP this spring, has been named to the 2018 National Fastpitch Coaches Association High School Western Region second team at third base.

The versatile Krantz, who has played multiple outfield and infield positions, batted .587 as a senior with nine home runs, 38 RBIs and a .698 on-base percentage. She struck out only six times in 63 at-bats.

Krantz will attend Benedictine College, an NAIA school in Atchinson, Kansas, to play softball. She finished her career with a .565 batting average, 33 home runs and 158 RBIs, all career highs for a player during coach Gary Blake’s 15 years as Blackhawks coach.

Spokane Stealth-Tibbits and Liberty Lake Lightning finished 1-2, respectively, in the 16U B division of the USA Softball of Washington State tournament last weekend in Yakima. Liberty Lake entered the championship game unbeaten after defeating Stealth 10-5 in the winners’ bracket final. But Stealth knocked off the Lightning 18-12 to force an “if-necessary” game, then won that one 9-4 to capture the title and cap a tournament in which it outscored opponents 77-33 in going 5-1.

Washington Rampage-Manos of Spokane Valley tied for ninth in the 16U B division.

In USA Softball of Washington State tournaments the previous weekend:

14U A – Spokane Sliders, tie fifth. 14U B – Spokane Diamonds, tie ninth; Spokane Stealth, T13th; Spokane Valley Impact, T17th; Spokane Bandits, T17th; INW Edge (Liberty Lake), T17th; Wicked (Moses Lake), T17th; Columbia Basin Velocity (Moses Lake), T17th; Spokane Scream, T25th. 12U B – Moses Lake Rattlers Black, tie fifth. 10U A/B – Spokane Stealth, tie seventh.

LC Blaze from Lewiston won the 12U division to lead the showing by 11 Spokane and North Idaho teams in USA Softball of Idaho state championship tournaments June 29-July 1.

Blaze lost their first game in the 15-team division in Boise then strung together seven wins, capped by 12-7 and 8-7 victories over the previously undefeated Idaho Racers of Boise to capture the title.

Other age-division finishes for area teams:

18U – Spokane Diamonds Elite, fourth. 16U – USA Explosion (Coeur d’Alene), tie fifth; LC Lightning (Lewiston), tie seventh; Spokane Mudhens-Smith, tie ninth. 14U – Spokane Mudhens-Connor, tie seventh; Orange Crush (Post Falls), tie ninth; Spokane Valley Impact, tie ninth; Coeur d’Alene Crush ’04, T13th; Post Falls Blast, T13th.