Braves travel to Helena Bravettes host Capital

The soccer postseason begins today for both the Flathead Braves and Bravettes as they look to extend their seasons with a run through the MHSA Class AA State soccer tournament.

The Braves, who finished 2-10 in Western AA play, earned the seventh seed and will be traveling to Helena to take on the second seeded Bengals at 3 p.m.

In two meetings against Helena, the Braves have score a just single goal. Flathead lost 4-1 on the road in the their first matchup back in September. The teams wouldn’t meet again until the final game of the season, a 2-0 Helena victory at Kidsports Complex on Friday.

While the third time may be the charm or a Flathead victory, Braves coach Dan Ferguson admits the difficulty of preparing for two consecutive games against the same opponent.

“It obviously has its pros and cons playing a team twice in a row,” Ferguson said.

“One of the cons is teams can understand you and figure out how you play and how to defend your team, but just the opposite is true.”

Ferguson also noted this isn’t the same Flathead squad that fell 4-1 in the first meeting against the Bengals.

“We’re a lot more confident on the ball. We make decisions on it better than we did at the start of the season,” Ferguson said.

“Now, we’re a lot more confident and a lot more comfortable and it shows. We played Helena and we were about equal on shots, but we lost 2-0 because they finished there a couple of their chances and we didn’t.”

The Braves will be up against an familiar foe, a long ride to Helena and the absence of their leading scorer— junior forward Kaleb Frame.

Frame earned his third yellow card in two matches against the Bengals and will watch from on the sidelines, though it won’t change the Flathead strategy.

“We’re really looking forward to our players getting into the attacking third and taking advantage of their opportunities early, looking to shoot first instead of pass first,” Ferguson added.

The Bravettes, who earned the Western AA fourth seed in the girls tournament, will square off against Helena Capital in the teams’ rubber match of the 2014 season.

Flathead lost to Capital 2-0 in Helena before defeating the Bruins 3-0 in Kalispell.

“We didn’t play our best game down in Helena, but we really turned the table on them last week,” Bravettes coach Cory Wilson said.

“Both teams are going to come out and play a hard match. It’s going to come down to intensity—the team that shows up and plays the full 80 minutes.”

The Bravettes (4-5-3 Wetsern AA) are led by leading scorers Jaymee Siler and Stephanie Wilson. The juniors have combined for nine goals in the conference this season, although the Bravettes manager notes there’s more depth to the team than the scorers.

“It’s been nice to see both of those kids step up,” Wilson said of Siler and Stephanie Wilson.

“Alexa may is playing well. Meredith Wilson playing up front has had a big year. It’s been a real team effort even though the statistics don’t reveal it.”

The two teams have negative goal differentials on the season, so the play of the goalkeeper will be a key to advance in the state tournament.

The Bravettes boast senior Zoe Zander whose experience and leadership have served Flathead well over the course of the season.

“Zoe’s a great leader for us. She anchors the team,” Wilson said.

“She’s a vocal leader, and she works so hard in parctice every single day.”

The Bravettes and Bruins kick off at 3 p.m. at Kidsports Complex.