Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Teams will have fourth matchup in league playoffs
Davenport freshman Kiera Katz lets a shot fly in the first half against Reardan. Katz scored a long goal in the Gorillas' 4-0 win to clinch the regular season league title Tuesday, Oct. 26.
REARDAN-Even though Reardan has only been in the NE2B for two seasons, a rivalry is beginning to bud between the youthful Davenport Gorillas and Tuesday's home team. Going into the match, each team had won on the other's home turf. In the rubber match, that trend continued, with Davenport earning a 4-0 win Oct. 26.
Davenport clinched the NE2B regular season title and No. 1 seed in the league playoffs with the victory amidst cold, windy and rainy conditions.
The game was scoreless for 20 minutes despite a couple scoring opportunities from each team. Then, Davenport struck with a high-arching shot from the left-center of the attacking side of the pitch by sophomore Emma Cormier.
Ten minutes later, freshman Kiera Katz decided she could do a bit better, putting in a deep, deep goal from the right side to give the Gorillas a 2-0 lead.
Right before halftime, Cormier's corner kick bounced off two Reardan defenders to give Davenport a 3-0 lead at the break.
"We've been working on the deeper shots closer to midfield, and they did what we've been practicing," Davenport head coach Monty Soliday said. "They were very energetic early, which we haven't seen that. A young team gets up for big games, and this was a pretty big one."
Eighth-grader Glenna Soliday broke away for an easy goal in the second half for the final score.
All the while, Reardan had about three solid chances to score and make the game competitive but were unable to convert.
"Davenport just outplayed us. They took their chances," Reardan head coach Brian Scott said. "The conditions maybe affected some of our passes in the first half, but to me, that would be a little bit of an excuse because our girls should still be able to make those passes. It was maybe a little bit more of a mentality tonight. Davenport took their chances and stuck their opportunities in the net, and we did not."
The game was the most lopsided of the series this year after Davenport won the first match 2-1 and Reardan took the second match in penalty kicks.
With the win, Davenport earned three points in the league standings to get to 17 for the season and tie idle Northwest Christian (Colbert). Because the Gorillas have the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Crusaders, Tuesday's win gave Davenport the regular season league title.
Reardan finished as the fourth seed in the league, so three matches won't be enough for these two squads. The two will face off again in an NE2B semifinal in Davenport Saturday, Oct. 30 at 1 p.m.
"We've done a good job of not giving up goals, so we've got to keep playing intense," Monty Soliday said. "I call them the little grinders, because they keep grinding out games...that's what we're going to have to see a lot more of."
Concurrently, NWC and St. George's will face off in the other league semifinal. The winner of each game will secure their spots in a district game against District 6 for a chance to go to the state playoffs.
The winners will also advance to the league title game next Tuesday, Nov. 2. Davenport would host that game with a win Saturday, while Reardan would be on the road for that game.
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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