Glacier boys host Big Sky in first round soccer matchup

Class AA soccer playoffs begin today, featuring 16 teams from across the state. Four of them are from Kalispell.

The Glacier boys are the only ones playing at home for the first round among those teams. Glacier’s girls, and both Flathead teams, are on the road.

As a No. 2 seed, 11-1-2 Glacier has the No. 7 Big Sky Eagles (1-13) for its first-round game, scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at Legends Field.

The Wolfpack beat Big Sky twice in the regular season, 6-0 and 8-1.

Glacier also finished the regular season with the best record in boys program history.

The Flathead boys had a tough season, but stayed positive. The Braves (1-13) head to Missoula to take on 12-0-2 Hellgate, who Glacier tied a few weeks ago. That game is at 7:30 p.m. at Fort Missoula Park.

Flathead’s girls will also be in Missoula to play Sentinel (9-3-2) at 4 p.m. at Sentinel High School. The 3-9-2 Bravettes lost to Sentinel twice in the regular season, both games by a score of 3-0. Flathead ended the season with a 10-1 rout of Butte.

Glacier’s girls head to Helena for a meeting with Capita (7-6-1), who it defeated by scores of 1-0 and 4-0 this season. The Wolfpack (6-7-1) are the No. 5 Western seed. Their game is at 2 p.m. at Northwest Park in Helena.

Helena High (12-0-2) is the obvious favorite to win the girls’ title after losing 1-0 to Glacier in 2020, when the Wolfpack won its first state championship in school history. Hellgate (11-2-1) and Sentinel are also in the conversation. Billings West in the east is 12-0-2 and is another team that will be looking to add to its trophy case — the school won back-to-back titles in 2008 and 2009 and another in 2019.

On the boys side, Hellgate, Glacier and Capital are all expected to make deep playoff runs. In the east, Bozeman (13-1) and Billings West (10-3-1) look like formidable competition. Gallatin High also had a strong season, finishing 9-5.