Whitefish goes on the attack, blanks Polson
WHITEFISH — It was all Whitefish as Emma Barron, Ali Hirsch, Olivia Potthkoff and Abby Lowry all scored goals for a 4-0 girls playoff play-in soccer victory over Polson on Tuesday at Smith Fields.
Barron’s goal nine minutes into play set the tone early for the Bulldogs.
The other scores came in the second half — Hirsch and Potthoff had back-to-back goals just a minute a part, and Lowery completed the scoring at 77 minutes.
Whitefish and Polson split during the regular season, Whitefish winning the first matchup 8-2 and losing the second 2-0.
The shutout for Whitefish, and keeper Sami Galbraith, was the third of the season.
“It was our most confident outing in terms of attacking play,” Whitefish coach Roland Benedict said.
“We’ve always been very talented at keeping the ball, maintaining possessions. Where we struggled was having that attacking edge, that gritting attitude of ‘I’m going to go score’ and we finally did that today.”
Benedict said in the first half Whitefish was very aggressive going to the goal.
“In the second half we were able to combine our possession soccer with our more attacking mind-set,” he said.
Benedict said Whitefish had 72 percent of the possessions in the second half. For the match, Whitefish had 362 passes to 106 for Polson.
Whitefish will host Hamilton in Class A quarterfinal play on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Smith Fields. Those two teams did not meet during the regular season.
Polson 0 0 — 0
Whitefish 1 3 — 4
W — Emma Barron, 9:00
W — Ali Hirsch (Anna Cook), 58:00
W — Olivia Potthoff (Barron), 59:00
W — Abby Lowry (Grace Benkelman), 77:00
Shots on goal — Polson 5, Whitefish 40, Corner kicks — Polson 0, Whitefish 3; Keeper saves — Polson 26 (Kallie Finkbeiner), Whitefish 3 (Sami Galbraith); Fouls —NA; Cards — None.
Flathead 2,
Missoula Sentinel 2
MISSOULA — Ellie Hawes scored at 20 minutes for Flathead to tie the match at 1-all and Shayenn Thompson netted a shot in the second half to put the Bravettes up 2-1 before Sentinel came back late to tie it for a final time with a goal at 75 minutes.
Thompson assisted on the goal by Hawes.
“A very good game,” Flathead coach Bledy Doda said.
“Very cold day, rainy.
“The girls worked very hard, gave 100 percent of themselves,” he added.
“The girls are doing what I’m asking for. They are believing in our goals and going for it.”
Flathead (4-7-2, 2-5-2) beat Sentinel earlier this year 2-0.
Flathead closes out regular-season play at home on Thursday versus Missoula Hellgate.
Flathead 1 1 — 2
Missoula Sentinel 1 1 — 2
MS — Sylvia Snyder, 3:00
F — Ellie Hawes (Shayenn Thompson), 20:00
F — Thompson (Heather LaSalle), 45:00
MS — Ashley McElmurry, 75:00
Shots on goal — Flathead 14, Sentinel 13; Corner kicks — Flathead 1, Sentinel 4; Keeper saves — Flathead 11 (Aaris Hill), Sentinel 12 (NA); Fouls — Flathead 10, Sentinel 4; Cards — None.
Glacier 0, Hellgate 0
MISSOULA —Glacier and Missoula Hellgate battled to a scoreless tie in Western AA play.
Sophie Smith had seven keeper saves for Glacier.
Hellgate led in shots on goal, 7-5, and corner kicks, 4-1.
No other details were available.
Glacier ends regular-season play on Thursday, hosting Missoula Sentinel.
Glacier 0 0 — 0
Hellgate 0 0 — 0
Shots on goal — Glacier 5, Hellgate 7. Corner kicks — Glacier 1, Hellgate 4; Keeper saves — Glacier 7 (Sophie Smith), Hellgate 5 (Kine Stimac); Fouls — Glacier 5, Hellgate 9; Cards — None.
Stillwater 7, Mission Valley 0
POLSON — Aleeya Derlatka scored three goals and Julia Pittaway, Loren Pittaway, Mabel Hartman and Jascah Vann had one each as Stillwater Christian School beat Mission Valley Christian Academy in Montana Christian Athletic Association play.
“We had good senior leadership from Jascah Vann and Loren Pittaway,” Stillwater coach JR Hemp said.
“We did a much better job maintaining our shape in the midfield, which allowed us to possess and be in command of the game. Marae Tintzman did a great job containing Ellie Maddy from MVCA, who was able to score in our first outing with MVCA. Aleeya Derlatka had several crosses for potential scores and did end up with one assist when Mabelle Hartman was able to put the cross in the back of the net.”
Stillwater (7-5-1) will play Chrysalis in Eureka on Friday.
Stillwater Christian 2 5 — 7
Mission Valley 0 0 — 0
SCS — Aleeya Derlatka (Loren Pittaway), 12:00
SCS — Derlatka (Mabelle Hartman), 19:00
SCS — Julia Pittaway, 41:00
SCS – L. Pittaway, 43:00
SCS – Hartman (Derlatka), 49:00
SCS — Derlatka (L. Pittaway), 50:00
SCS — Jascah Vann, 69:00
Shots on goal — Stillwater 28, Mission Valley 7; Corner kicks — Stillwater 8, Mission Valley 2; Keeper saves — Stillwater 3, Mission Valley 11; Fouls — NA; Cards — NA.
Boys
Flathead 4, Sentinel 3
MISSOULA — The first hat trick of the season for Colter Goss could not have come at a better time.
Goss, a senior midfielder, scored at 27 minutes to give Flathead (7-6, 5-6) an early lead, and scored again at 57 and 80 minutes to help the Braves battle back in the second half for the Western AA victory over Sentinel.
Both teams scored three goals in the second half.
Flathead took a 2-0 lead after 51 minutes on AJ Apple’s goal before Sentinel scored three straight, two on penalty kicks, to jump in front 3-2.
Goss then tied it at 3-all with his second goal.
He followed 13-plus minutes later with the game winner in salvage time when Flathead defender Kell Rasnic cleared the ball out from the back line, Goss went under the ball as it went over the Sentinel defense and was then able to chip the goalie in a one-on-one situation.
“He was the guy today,” Flathead coach Zach Brenneman said of Goss.
“I would say the coolest thing on here was the four goals with four assists, which means we were moving the ball really well, that chances were created by players who were working hard to make the extra pass. Today was a great day. They had a lot of fun and we scored some goals.”
Flathead concludes regular-season play on Thursday hosting Missoula Hellgate.
Sentinel won the earlier meeting this fall with Flathead, 1-0
Flathead 1 3 — 4
Missoula Sentinel 0 3 — 3
F — Colter Goss (Jack Morris), 27:00
F — AJ Apple (Goss), 51:00
MS — Jake Larson, pk 53:00
MS — Noah McNelis, 60:00
MS — Cole Reimer, pk 65:00
F — Goss (Cameron Deneeve), 67:00
F — Goss (Kell Rasnic), 80:00
Shots on goal — Flathead 7, Sentinel 7; Corner kicks — Flathead 4, Sentinel 3; Keeper saves — Flathead 4 (Max Warnell), Sentinel 3 (NA); Fouls — Flathead 14, Sentinel 4; Cards — Flathead, 2 yellow, Sentinel, 3 yellow.
Hellgate 5, Glacier 1
MISSOULA — Hellgate raced out to a 2-0 first-half lead on two early scores and added three more in the second half for a Western AA victory over Glacier.
Dyllyn Stabler scored for Glacier in the 70th minute.
Hellgate held a big advantage in shots on goal, 29-4, and corner kicks, 6-1.
Glacier completes regular-season play on Thursday hosting Missoula Sentinel.
Glacier 0 1 — 1
Hellgate 2 3 — 5
MH — Matt Bladridge, assist Cole Hage, 13:00
MH — Dane Becker, Baldridge, 17:00
MH — Marcus Anderson, Hage, 41:00
MH — Elijah Weston-Capulong, Hage, 62:00
MH — Campbell Rolston-Clemmer, 65:00
G — Dyllyn Stabler, 70:00
Shots on goal: Glacier 4, Hellgate 29; Corner kicks — Glacier 1, Hellgate 6; Keeper saves: Glacier 15 (John Pyron), Hellgate 1 (Brendan Oberg); Fouls — Glacier 4, Hellgate 6; Cards — None.
Polson 6, Columbia Falls 5
POLSON — The Columbia Falls Wildcats’ season ended with a loss to Polson in penalty kicks in the Class A playoff play-in match.
“Our season’s over and our boys had their greatest performance of the season,” Columbia Falls coach O’Brien Byrd said. “One of the gutsiest performances I’ve seen in a Wildcat jersey in a long, long, long time.”
Jason Albin scored in the 17th minute for Columbia Falls’ first lead, assisted by Payton Fisher. Polson’s Robin Erickson tied it in the 33rd minute and the Wildcats bounced back for a 2-1 lead with John Gilk’s score in the 69th minute. Erickson scored his second goal at 76 minutes, sending it to overtime. After two overtime periods, Polson pulled out the win 6-5 in penalty kicks.
“The first time we played Polson they beat us 6-0, then they beat us 3-0 and then to go into this game where we were ahead twice and then overtime and penalty kicks, it’s the reason why I coach,” Byrd said. “Young men playing with absolutely everything they have and making memories like tonight.”
Columbia Falls 1 1 0 0 — 2
Polson 1 1 0 0 — 2
CF — Jason Albin (Payton Fisher) 17:00
P – Robin Erickson (unassisted) 33:00
CF – John Gilk (Fisher) 69:00
P – Erickson (unassisted) 76:00
Polson wins 6-5 on PKs
Shots on goal – Columbia Falls 9, Polson 10; Corner kicks — Columbia Falls 3, Polson 5; Keeper saves – Columbia Falls 9 (Story Stemborski), Polson 9 (Kaden Nelson); Fouls – Columbia Falls 9, Polson 9; Cards – Columbia Falls (1 yellow), Polson (none)