Wolfpack turns corner on Billings West boys
Glacier's Diego Mendoza (2) celebrates after scoring the game-winning goal off a corner kick in overtime against Billings West at Legends Stadium on Saturday. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
The Glacier boys had the lead, then they lost it, and then they won their State AA quarterfinal soccer game in the most unlikely fashion Saturday: With a corner kick.
Diego Mendoza’s goal with two minutes left in overtime lifted the Wolfpack to a 3-2 win at Legends Stadium. It moved Glacier (11-3-2) into a semifinal match at Missoula Hellgate (15-0-1) at 7 p.m., at the Fort Missoula Complex. The Knights swamped Billings Skyview 7-1 Saturday.
It’s the second straight semifinal trip for the Pack, which lost to Hellgate in the 2017 state final. Burke Fox and Mendoza made it possible -- for the first time all season.
“We finally did one of the runs we all planned,” Mendoza said. “I called for it right when I was taking off. (Fox) heard me and put it on the front post, I barely got a hip on it, and it was just enough to hit the other guy and bounce in.
“A little piece of me, then him, then goal. It was a circus.”
It took the edge off a rough 60-second stretch late in the game in which Billings West a) got a 90-foot goal from Douglas Townsend off a sideline kick and b) a put-back goal by Loren Rogge in the game’s 78th minute.
“It was one of those last-ditch efforts,” West coach Luke Ashmore said. “I don’t think Joel expected to score off it, but a goal’s a goal. I was super ecstatic — they just didn’t quit. And it made for a very good playoff game.”
Rogge was there for the rebound when Glacier missed a couple attempts at clearing a centering pass. Until then the Pack had been in command, thanks to two Braden Nitschelm goals — one off a pretty cross from Eli Mildren.
“Eli ended up winning it up the field and I saw him go into the right and saw the opportunity to make the run,” Nitschelm said. “I told him to play it, he played it, and it came past our teammate Solly (Dalla Betta) and right to me.”
It was the 38th minute; Nitschelm added another goal off a penalty kick when Parker Creer was taken down in the box at 50:00.
More chances — from Hunter Lisowski, Daniel Camp and Nitschelm — came and went. Then West, down a man because of a red card in the 53rd minute, tied it.
“We’ve had a lot of those — we’ve been put in positions like that all the time,” Nitschelm said. “We’re up, and they come back somehow. I knew our team wasn’t going to let our seniors have the last game end like this. I knew we had the game in hand.”
“Give West a lot of credit, they kept pushing,” said Glacier coach Ryan Billiet. “Then they got that goal to somehow find the net, and a little bit of a momentum swing, and then another one.
“I told our guys it’s good for us, because it’s testing us. How do you respond?”
They responded with a landmark corner kick.
“What are the odds?” wondered Nitschelm.
“It could not have come more clutch,” Billiet said. “Game in hand, give up two goals and now we’re in overtime, and finding a way to finish, late-game, on a set piece. it showed a lot of character for the guys to get at that point, and get the result.”
Billings West 0 2 0 - 2
Glacier 1 1 1 - 3
G - Braden Nitschelm (Eli Mildren), 38:00
G - Nitschelm (PK), 50:00
BW - Doug Townsend, 77:00
BW - Loren Rogge, 78:00
G - Diego Mendoza, 98:00
Shots on goal - West 6, Glacier 14. Goalie saves - West (Dillon Haff, Kasey Meier) 5, Glacier (John Pyron) 4. Corner kicks - West 0, Glacier 5. Fouls - West 11, Glacier 12. Cards - West 1 red, Glacier 1 yellow.