Bulldog soccer rolls through Lakeland

SANDPOINT — If there was any fatigue that came from playing two games in two days, the Sandpoint Bulldogs certainly didn’t show it as they rolled through the Lakeland Hawks at home Wednesday night to stay nearly perfect in conference play.

Coming off of a 1-1 tie Tuesday against the Coeur d’Alene Vikings, Sandpoint honored their senior players on Senior Night with a commanding 8-0 victory.

From the opening kickoff, the Bulldogs dominated. Senior Shawn Russell started the scoring before many spectators even had time to find their seats.

“It’s hard to come off a tough game like last night and have that energy and intensity, but you know, we scored within the first 10 seconds, which has to be some kind of record for our league,” Sandpoint coach Tanner French said.

The Bulldogs continued the onslaught for the entire first half and stormed into halftime with a 6-0 lead; getting two goals from senior Randy Lane, one from junior Eoin Eddy, one from sophomore Henry Barnes and one from senior Mark Rago.

For the second-half, coach French was able to cycle in more of the seniors to ensure that they all had their time in the spotlight. Senior Emmett Morgan and Eddy would add to the Sandpoint lead to cap off the win.

“I was happy with some of the (seniors) that haven’t been getting a lot of playing time this year,” French said. “It wasn’t a pretty match, but you can’t be disappointed with eight goals and a shutout.”

French added that in order to win the state tournament, the Bulldogs will have to win three games in three days, so the back-to-back was good practice for that.

Sandpoint (9-0-3 IEL, 8-0-2) will host Lake City on Oct. 4.

Lakeland (2-9-1 overall, 0-3-1 conference) will play the Moscow Bears on Oct. 4 at 4 p.m. in Moscow. Rathdrum coach Jeremiah Beckett declined to comment following Wednesday night’s game.