AA soccer: Braves open play-in matches versus Hellgate

Class AA state soccer play-in matches begin today for the Western Division with seventh-seed Flathead (0-11-1) at defending state champ and No. 2 seed Missoula Hellgate (9-2-1) for a 5 p.m. outing.

Play-in matches will continue every day through Saturday for Western and Eastern division boys and girls teams.

All winners advance to the state tournament Oct. 25-27 at Kidsports Complex.

The Helena High boys (9-2-1) and girls (7-0-5) receive automatic state berths by claiming regular-season titles in the Western Division. Bozeman’s boys (10-2-0) and girls (11-2-0) did the same in the Eastern Division.

Flathead faces an enormous task with Hellgate, having already lost to the Knights twice this fall — 7-0 and 5-0 .

Hellgate has scored 45 goals and allowed 14 while Flathead has scored just six goals and surrendered 46.

Senior Reid Birgenheier, 17 goals and one assist, and junior Kyle Higgins, 11 goals and four assists, are Hellgate’s two main offensive weapons. Steen Shober, another senior, has four goals and four assists.

Eleven different Hellgate players have scored goals to just three for Flathead (senior Monte White has three goals and juniors Caleb Buxton two and Lander Crissman one).

Flathead coach Chris Putzler admits it’s a tall order for his Braves.

“Hellgate has quality players and (coach) Jay (Anderson) does a heckuva job with them,” he said.

“We have to get our offense going at least to make it a competitive match.”

Putzler says he has no surprises or special strategy planned for this one.

“We won’t make drastic changes on how we play or what we do,” he said.

”We’ll play our game and do what we can.”

He said the Braves will try to keep the ball away from Hellgate’s leading scorers.

“See if we can reduce the number of goals,” he said.

“A freight train is hard to stop, but we’ll just try to slow them down.”

The Braves finished regular-season play at home over the weekend, losing to Helena Capital 6-0 and Helena 1-0.

“The game against Helena we marked some of their better players,” Putzler said.

And it worked.

The Bengals eventually pulled it out — 1-0 — on a penalty kick at 78 minutes.

“Best game they played all season,” Putzler said of his team.

“Just an unfortunate outcome — a 0-0 tie except for a late penalty. That’s how the cards fall sometimes. Hopefully we’ll take a little bit of that momentum we might have and at least finish strong.

“The seniors could have packed it in a couple years ago,” he added.

“We haven’t had a win, just a tie, in three years. That’s a streak everyone wants to break.

“The guys continue to battle, work hard and do the best they can,” he said.

“They don’t hang their heads, don’t give up. I appreciate that.”