Senior stops Flathead girls in AA state soccer semis

HELENA - The Bravettes had allowed just four goals this season entering Friday's Class AA state tournament semifinal match against Billings Senior.

Unfortunately for Flathead, goal number five was enough to knock them out of championship contention.

The Bravettes fell 1-0 to the Broncs in a match highlighted by stout defense.

"Billings Senior is a great team," Flathead coach Scott Warnell said. "They're very physical. We battled really hard with them. We knew it was going to be a one goal game either way."

That goal came off the leg of Billings Senior's Maddy Emerick in the 64th minute.

"It was a good shot," Warnell said. "It was probably about 12 or 15 yards out. Payton (Pietron) had a good play but it was a good, low, hard shot and it got underneath her."

Flathead scrambled to tie in the final minutes of the match, but couldn't sneak one past Billings goalkeeper Sara Heard.

It was just the second loss for Flathead (8-2-5) in a season in which they posted 10 shutouts and earned the No. 2 seed in Western Class AA.

Billings Senior (11-0-3) will move on to play Billings Skyview in the state championship game today at 12:30 p.m. Flathead will play Missoula Sentinel to determine the third and fourth place finishers in the tournament today at 10 a.m.

The Bravettes tied the Spartans once and beat them once during the regular season.

"I expect the girls to recover from today and go out and play hard tomorrow and finish the season strong," Warnell said.

Semifinals

Billings Senior 1, Flathead 0

Senior 0 1 - 1

Flathead 0 0 - 0

BILLINGS SENIOR - Maddy Emmerick, 64:00.

GOALIES: Billings Senior, Sara Heard; Flathead Payton Pietron.

Billings Skyview 1, Missoula Sentinel 0

Skyview 1 0 - 1

Sentinel 0 0 - 0

First half - Sky, Jessica Spang (Bethany Irion), 38:00. Keepers - Sky, Katie Hoff; MS, Jessica Henning.

Loser out

C.M. Russell 2, Capital High 1

CMR 1 1 - 2

Capital 0 1 - 1

First half - CMR, Anna Weber, 26:00. Second half - CHS, Elly Priddy, 64:00; CMR, Lexi Pyette (Alison Zimmerman), 72:00. Keepers - CMR, Gwen Malasani; CHS, Kyra Dorvall.

Bozeman 3, Helena 1

Helena 0 1 - 1

Bozeman 3 0 - 3

First half - Boz - Cydney Martin, 8th; Boz - Elizabeth Swoboda, 10th; Boz - Averie Collins (Jessica Hawthorne), 14th

Second half - Hel - Callie Kanthack (Madison Therriault), 53rd

Shots on goal: Helena 8, Bozeman 9. Saves: Helena 8 (Taelar Therriault 8), Bozeman 7 (Candice Berdahl 3, Nicole Harvey 5). Corner kicks: Helena 5, Bozeman 2.