SOCCER: Polson, Whitefish settle for split

WHITEFISH — Haley Nicholson blasted home her 20th goal of the season in the 58th minute to send Whitefish’s girls into sole possession of first place in the Northern A conference, but Polson’s boys spoiled the second half of the Bulldogs’ homecoming soccer doubleheader with an identical 1-0 win on Saturday evening at Memorial Field.

The matches pitted two of the top teams in the league on both the boys and girls sides, and each delivered an entertaining duel on a narrower-than-usual pitch in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd at Whitefish’s football stadium.

GIRLS

Whitefish 1, Polson 0

Nicholson saw a purple Polson shadow everywhere she went — and sometimes more than one — before finally breaking free midway through the second half to propel the Bulldogs to their fourth straight win and hand the Pirates their first conference loss.

Marked tightly by Alana Fox all night, the Whitefish (7-2-0, 5-0-0 league) star got free and received an on-target feed from Melissa Pollard in the middle of the field to set up the winner. The senior used one touch to get around the last Polson defender, Olivia Hewston, and sent a rocket inside the far left post from point-blank range.

The goal was the final round in a match-long battled between Nicholson and Hewston, who along with Fox and Marina Mayorga, had Nicholson bracketed and stymied most of the match.

“I got the ball at my feet, I turned and [Hewston] was faced up at me,” Nicholson said. “The first time I went up against her I tried to (kick the ball between her legs) … the second time I tried making a move and going around her, the third time I tried to beat her with speed. It happened like five or six times so I was like ‘OK, I need to try something else.’

“At the last second it hit me, ‘kick it around her.’”

The goal gives Nicholson three straight seasons of at least 20 goals. She led Class A last year with 31 goals and 73 total points.

Her coach, Roland Benedict, was most pleased with how well Nicholson has adapted to being the focus of every defense she’s faced and how her game has developed beyond simply her powerful right leg.

“Yeah she can shoot from distance and score goals, and she kicks field goals (for the Whitefish football team),” Benedict said.

“She can kick the ball — but she’s a good soccer player.

“They’re preventing the through ball, they’re preventing any service on her feet and she’s man-marked and she still scores goals, and she could have had two or three in the first half.”

The Pirates (6-2-0, 3-1-0) have their own dynamic scorer in speedster Tiara Duford, but the absence of three Polson regulars, including second-leading scorer Ashlee Howell, due to injury left Duford on her own up top and she and her teammates failed to generate consistent scoring chances.

“We knew coming in that it was going to be an uphill climb but I thought we did well,” Polson coach Michael Hewston said.

“Being down those players, I don’t want to make excuses because Whitefish played good soccer, but I think we’ll have a different game in Polson. I really do.”

Whitefish finished with eight shots on goal to Polson’s seven. Kess Nelson made seven saves for the Bulldogs to earn the shutout.

The loss snapped a four-match Pirates winning streak.

The two teams will rematch Oct. 4 in Polson at 7 p.m.

Polson 0 0 — 0

Whitefish 0 1 — 1

WF — Haley Nicholson (Melissa Pollard), 58:00

Shots on goal — Polson 7, Whitefish 8. Saves — Polson 7 (Jenna Evertz), Whitefish 7 (Kess Nelson). Corner kicks — Polson 3, Whitefish 5. Fouls — Polson 5, Whitefish 7. Cards — None.

BOYS

Polson 1, Whitefish 0

An explosive and enthusiastic Polson side found a goal when Andrew Hanson’s direct kick from 40 yards away ricocheted off the head of Connor Lanier and into the back of the net in the 35th minute to give the visiting Pirates the only goal they would need.

The win keeps defending conference champion Polson one game back of league-leading Columbia Falls in the Northern A.

The Pirates (5-2-0, 2-1-0) used their superior speed to generate numerous scoring chances, particularly in the first half. Polson dinged one off the crossbar in the sixth minute and saw Mike Mercer’s penalty shot stopped by Whitefish keeper Marty Anderson in the 17th minute.

With just five minutes to go before half, Lanier’s goal came on Polson’s eighth shot on frame in the period.

“That was just kind of one of those scrappy ones that we’ve been trying to get,” Polson coach Adam Fansher said. “The pretty ones haven’t been coming as easy lately so we’ll take goals however they come.

“Credit to Whitefish,” Fansher added. “Their keeper was outstanding, made some really big saves, and they certainly made things difficult for us defensively.”

Whitefish countered effectively against Polson much of the night, and even as the Pirates were dominating possession in the first half, the Bulldogs had a handful of terrific chances of their own. Whitefish put one off the post in the first half and had two shots sail errantly on an empty net in the second half.

“I thought the effort was great,” Whitefish coach John Lacey said. “A couple lucky bounces the other way and it’s a tie or a win our way.”

Russell Smith made four saves in the shutout victory. Anderson stopped nine shots in a losing effort to combat an 11-5 Polson edge in shots on goal.

The two teams will square off in Polson on Oct. 4 at 5 p.m.

Polson 1 0 — 1

Whitefish 0 0 — 0

POL — Connor Lanier (Andrew Hanson), 35:00

Shots on goal — Polson 11, Whitefish 5. Saves — Polson 4 (Russell Smith), Whitefish 9 (Marty Anderson). Corner kicks — Polson 5, Whitefish 2. Fouls — Polson 13, Whitefish 7. Cards — Yellow: Polson 1.