Morgan Skone's circus shot ignites shutout of Eastmont
Connor Vanderweyst/Columbia Basin Herald Moses Lake midfielder Morgan Skone (right) celebrates with teammate Claire Hopkins after scoring a goal on a corner kick.
Connor Vanderweyst/Columbia Basin Herald Moses Lake forward Madi Krogh (2) races to the ball next to Eastmont defender Alyssa Konarek.
Connor Vanderweyst/Columbia Basin Herald Moses Lake's Abby Rathbun (22) tries to shake multiple Eastmont defenders Tuesday at Lions Field.
MOSES LAKE — Sometimes it’s a little better to be lucky than good.
Morgan Skone lined up for a corner kick in the 15th minute. Trying to loft it up to where a teammate could put a head or a toe on the ball, Skone inadvertently — but still exceptionally — bent her offering into the net.
An Olympic goal.
“I didn’t really know if it went in,” Skone said. “I was just trying to get a ball to my teammates to see if they could get a little touch in, but I’m just happy it went in. It was really unexpected.”
Skone scored twice in the first half and Moses Lake shut out Eastmont 4-0.
Moses Lake had its full compliment of forwards with Abby Rathbun back in the line up, and the new dynamic was evident from the start. Rathbun put a shot on goal within the first 20 seconds and the Chiefs bombarded Eastmont goalie Natalia Alonso throughout the first half.
“Eastmont knows how good Abby is as an athlete and as a soccer player,” head coach Ric Char said. “This was her first game playing with the team and we’ve got some work to do, but she definitely gets the attention in the middle and it frees up Madi (Krogh) and it frees up Morgan to do their thing on the outside and use their speed.”
Rathbun entered the scorebook with an assist to Christina Mullan in the 21st minute, a nice pass back that allowed Mullan to size up her shot and let loose from about 10 yards away.
Skone added her second goal two minutes later with a chip shot over the head of Alonso.
Eastmont made its push at the beginning of the second half.
However, Abigail Rosenow made three saves within the first 12 minutes and Moses Lake’s back line held up behind the play of captain Cora Bruneel and all-league defender Taya Rogers.
“Just hard, grit, blue collar tackling and playing,” Char said. “With Cora, she inspires and brings confidence to the team with her hard tackles and slide tackles and tough plays so good on her for being a captain. The girls played very well on defense.”
Krogh put on the jets in the 76th minutes, splitting two defenders, and finished a breakaway with a goal low and away that Alonso could not even react to.
Tuesday’s game was a strong performance in all phases, something the Chiefs had been building toward.
“We’ve definitely grown from last year,” Skone said. “We have the same team, but we’ve all grown, definitely, and we wanted this win so bad ... we’ve just gotten better and our effort was there the whole time.”
First half — 1, ML, Skone, 15:00. 2, ML, Mullan (Rathbun), 21:00. 3, ML, Skone, 23:00
Second half — 4, ML, Krogh, 76:00.