5A REGION 1 BOYS SOCCER CHAMPIONSHIP: Rolling the right direction
Lake City downs Coeur d’Alene to win second straight regional title; advance to state 5A tournament
COEUR d’ALENE — It starts with the seniors, and rolls throughout the lineup for the Lake City Timberwolves boys soccer team.
After Wednesday’s 4-0 win by the Timberwolves in the 5A Region 1 championship match against the Coeur d’Alene Vikings at the Irma Anderl Soccer Complex, they’ve started that familiar roll to the finish of the postseason.
Lake City senior forward Jack Barrett had three goals — two coming in the decisive second half — as the Timberwolves clinched a second straight regional title.
“This senior group, it starts with them,” Lake City coach Chad Beadell said. “They’ve had a lot of blood, sweat and tears on the field. We hit a little bit of a stretch there in the middle of the season, and these guys turned it around. We played a little sloppy in the first half, and they admitted it at halftime. Just need to find feet and play a little harder, and they did that in the second half. And I couldn’t be prouder of them.”
Junior Cole Fawcett added a late goal for Lake City (12-1-1), which opens the state tournament against the District 3 runner-up next Thursday at 8 a.m. at Rocky Mountain High in Meridian. Coeur d’Alene (6-7-0) moves on to a play-in match on Saturday at 3 p.m. against the fifth place finisher from District 3 at Walker Field in Lewiston.
“Disappointed in the loss and the result, but that’s a result of being a competitor, a coach, and someone that loves the sport,” Coeur d’Alene coach Jeff Lake said. “I’m not disappointed in the way the kids played. First goal was a great combo that Jack put in, and that’s a great team over there. They’ve got a legitiamate shot to win the whole thing next week, and we hope to be right there with them. We’re looking forward to Saturday.”
“In the second half, you could see we had a good chance to score some goals,” Beadell said. “Coeur d’Alene’s goalie (Shawn McKeeken) and their entire team played hard. Jeff has a really good team over
LAKE CITY
from B1
them and I expect them to do well in that play-in game. It was a fun game. You’ve got certain individuals — Jack Barrett, Devon Hoffman, Garrett Flolo, (Jared) Stone in the back in goal and all those other guys — and Colton Gednelske digging the ball out of the middle of the field. Barrett just does what he does, and it’s awesome to see.”
Barrett scored five goals during regional play.
“It’s pretty awesome, especially for it being my final game on this field,” Barrett said. “It’s pretty cool to win a championship. All of us seniors are pumped.”
“We can’t be statisfied right now,” Beadell said. “We’ve got to do something at state. We’ve got to bring a trophy home from state. These guys have worked way to hard not to do so.”
Lake City went 1-2 at state last year after entering the tournament unbeaten.
“We’re a lot younger team, but the players down there, they’ve lost a lot of players,” Barrett said. “We’re young, but we’ve been playing well the last couple of games.”
Coeur d’Alene last apppeared at state in 2010, finishing fourth.
“Season’s not over at all,” Lake said. “We’re looking forward to going to Lewiston to punch our ticket to state. We’re disappointed, but we’ve got to get over it. We’ve got to get ready for Saturday and be ready to play.”
First half — 1, LC, Jack Barrett (Devon Hoffman), 7:00. Second half — 2, LC, Barrett (Hoffman), 48:30. 3, LC, Barrett (Travis Swallow), 62:30. 4, LC, Cole Fawcett (Caleb Mcluskie), 77:55.
Shots on goal — Cd’A 4, LC 19.
Saves — Cd’A, Shawn McKeeken 3; LC, Jared Stone 3.