'Painful' play-in loss for Glacier
<p>Glacier's Connor Brandon (10) and Drew Silvers (3) react after an own goal Thursday afternoon during Glacier's loss to Missoula Sentinel in a Class AA play-in match at Glacier High School. </p>
<p> Missoula Sentinel’s Erik Deiwert (15) and Glacier’s Jake Lockwood (right) battle for the ball Thursday afternoon.</p><p></p>
The Glacier boys soccer season came to an unexpected end Thursday with a 4-1 loss to Missoula Sentinel in a Class AA state tournament play-in game at Glacier High School.
Third-seeded Glacier (6-5-2) beat sixth-seeded Sentinel (4-9-0) in both of their regular season meetings, but the Wolfpack players didn’t look themselves in the playoff game. Sentinel opened the scoring in the first minute and thoroughly outpossessed Glacier in the first half. The Wolfpack created more chances in the second, but never got its two-touch passing game on track.
“It was one of those games that didn’t go our way, it just happened to be in the playoff,” Glacier coach Ryan O’Rourke said. “We weren’t really clicking at the end of the season. I was hoping it would start happening in the playoff game and it just didn’t.”
While Glacier went 0-2-1 in its last three regular season games, Sentinel entered the playoff on a hot streak having won two of its last three.
“I feel like we’re peaking now,” Sentinel coach Dan Lochridge said. “The idea is that we had a young team that didn’t have a lot of experience playing together at the beginning of the season. I knew we were going to lose a lot at the beginning of the season and I was just hoping we would be able to put it together by game 13 when it really mattered.”
Sentinel got a confidence boost in the first minute when Gabe Peppenger won possession from a Glacier defender inside the 18-yard box and scored with a shot inside the near post.
Glacier answered on a quick counter in the 19th minute when Kade Deleray played a through ball to Colton Becker, who took a touch around the charging goalkeeper and put the ball in the open net to knot the score at 1-1.
Other than that quick strike, Glacier didn’t create any scoring chances in the first half, a result of its inability to sustain possession in its offensive third.
Sentinel nearly took a lead on a long-range shot by Adam Mickelson in the 28th minute, but Glacier goalkeeper Lonnie Sherman deflected the ball into the crossbar.
The ball bounced Mickelson’s way in the 38th minute when his shot from the edge of the 18-yard box deflected off two Glacier defenders and into the net for an own goal.
Sentinel went ahead 3-1 in the 52nd minute when Logan Drapes used his head to flick a free kick from Mickelson into the Glacier goal.
The Wolfpack established more possession after conceding its third goal, but didn’t finish its chances. Deleray headed a free kick from Jake Lockwood into the arms of Sentinel goalkeeper Tanner Maier in the 54th minute, then Lockwood fired well over the crossbar from 25 yards out a minute later.
Sentinel hammered the final nail into Glacier’s coffin in the 65th minute when Erik Deiwert scored to make it 4-1.
The loss means Glacier misses the state tournament for the first time since 2008.
“It’s painful, particularly for the seniors,” O’Rourke said. “This is a group of seniors that have gone to state three years in a row. They were expecting a fourth and it’s not going to happen.”
The Wolfpack was without leading scorer Matt Peters, who received a yellow card in Glacier’s final regular season game.
The state tournament begins Thursday at Kidsports complex in Kalispell.
Sentinel 2 2 — 4
Glacier 1 0 — 1
S - Gabe Peppenger (assist Trevor Powell), 1:00
G - Colton Becker, Kade Deleray, 19:00
G - Own goal, 38:00
S - Logan Drapes, Adam Mickelson, 52:00
S - Erik Deiwert, Justin Chong, 65:00
Shots - Sentinel 17, Glacier 10. Saves - Sentinel 8 (Tanner Maier), Glacier 9 (Lonnie Sherman). Corner kicks - Sentinel 6, Glacier 3. Total fouls - Sentinel 8, Glacier 12. Yellow cards - Glacier 1. Red cards - none.