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Speed and Scoring is Cashmere's Game: Early Five-Goal Outburst Has Rest of NWL Taking Notice

Posted on: Wednesday, 22 March 2006, 09:00 CST

By Joe Sunnen, The Bellingham Herald, Bellingham, Wash.

Mar. 22--FERNDALE - It didn't take long for Bellingham's Nick Cashmere to serve notice that he could be the best scorer in the Northwest League this season.

Five goals against Kamiak in a non-league boys' soccer game on Friday made everyone aware of what the junior forward is capable of doing.

"That was a great performance by a gifted player," Bellingham coach Paul Horne said. "He was electric. He just turned their defense inside out on a couple of them."

For Cashmere, the goals were more the result of what the team was able to do against Kamiak, not just what he was able to do with the soccer ball.

"I couldn't have done it without the rest of the team," Cashmere said. "We played well as a whole."

That type of humility doesn't surprise Horne. He sees it in Cashmere's play all of the time at practice and during games.

"Nick's humble and he's right, he couldn't have done it without his teammates," Horne said. "But it was also a very unselfish performance by him. He wasn't controlling the ball in any way. Our midfield distributed the ball and put him a position to score."

Along with some fancy footwork, a lot of Cashmere's game is based on speed. He's fast, sometimes deceptively so, and will use that to bait defenders into thinking they have him marked up before making a break on the ball.

"Speed was a factor against Kamiak," Cashmere said. "Their backline was slow and our forwards and midfielders were just pinging it around, finding me when I got open."

If five goals weren't enough, Horne said Cashmere had a chance at two others but couldn't convert. Horne said he sent one off the post and missed wide on another attempt.

"He certainly had himself quite a day," Horne said. "We're sure lucky we have him."

The Red Raiders played Ferndale on Tuesday and after his game against Kamiak, the Golden Eagles knew they had to mark Cashmere well.

"He's probably their best scorer," Ferndale coach Scott Browne said. "He's their go-to guy and we knew we had to defend well against him."

There' no doubt he'll will be seeing a lot more attention throughout the remainder of the season.

"It's a pretty good start to the season," Cashmere said. "I'm working on it."

Reach Joe Sunnen at 756-2862 or by e-mail at joe.sunnen@bellinghamherald.com.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Bellingham Herald, Bellingham, Wash.

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Source: The Bellingham Herald, Wash.

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