Anderson's late goal helps Shadow escape with victory

The Spokane Shadow soccer team treated fans to a full fireworks show following Saturday night's game against the Abbotsford Rangers.

Rob Anderson made sure the fireworks started on time.

The Shadow defender followed up John Palladino's shot from just inside the six-yard box, tapping it into an open net 3 minutes into extra time to give Spokane a 2-1 win over the Rangers at Joe Albi Stadium.

The goal, Anderson's second of the year, came after Palladino was fouled just inside the midfield line near the left touchline.

Captain and assistant coach Kieran Barton screamed, "Yeah, Rob!" and sent a long ball into the Abbotsford penalty box where it was headed straight up into the air. Garth Cummings leaped over two Rangers defenders to head it forward. Palladino turned and fired a shot that was saved by Abbotsford goalie Chris Cecil. But the ball fell in front of Anderson, who tapped it in for the win.

"That first ball went up and got flicked up," Anderson said, "and I saw it coming to me and I just tried to get a body under it. It deflected from me to John, John deflected it and it fell just right. I mean, when you're four yards out and the keeper doesn't know where the ball's going, it's pretty easy."

The win boosted the Shadow's record to 7-1-1, 22 points, four points ahead of second-place Cascade. Abbotsford (2-7-1, 7) is in third place.

The Shadow dominated action in the first half and used a strong buildup to score less than three minutes in.

After seven consecutive passes, Palladino cut toward the middle from the top-right corner of the Abbotsford box. He sent a pass to Brett Hite, who had gotten behind the right side of the Rangers' defense. Hite then dropped the ball to Cummings, who cut inside two defenders and left Cecil frozen with a shot into the bottom left corner of the net.

But, despite owning the run of play in the first half - the Shadow had six corner kicks in the first half to Abbotsford's zero - Spokane wasn't able to expand on its lead and struggled to find their footing through much of the second half.

"We took our foot off the pedal a little bit," head coach Stuart Saunders said. "We score that early goal and then all of a sudden we just kind of stopped playing and struggled through it, and eventually they end up getting a goal out of nothing, and then it's 1-1 and now we're in a battle."

The Shadow's best chance to increase the lead came in the ninth minute when Austin Washington sent a ball over to Matt Stueckle, who was playing in the midfield rather than his usual defensive role. Stueckle worked a perfectly executed give-and-go with Cummings and blasted a shot off the right post.

Abbotsford capitalized on Spokane's inability to finish and tied the game in the 31st minute off a fluke goal.

Anderson was called for a questionable foul 22 yards from the goal. Sean Crocker then blasted a shot that deflected off Palladino, who was standing in the Shadow wall. Spokane keeper Kris Wright was already heading toward his left and was left helpless as the ball bounced to his right and into the net.

NOTES

Hite was marked closely and fouled close to 10 times, but was still able to pick up an assist on Cummings' goal. ... The Shadow were without Tim Seely (hamstring), Troy Ready (personal), Evan Cummings (college graduation), Paul Johnson (coaching youth team) and Jake Moug (out of town).

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